Eleven

“He is finally asleep!”

Lily makes the announcement as she comes back into the living room, with a sippy cup in her hand and a few hairs out of place. Ty was so overstimulated that he was way harder to put down for a nap than he usually is. He wanted her to sing to him, then he wanted to dance to it. So she tried a story that he requested about dinosaurs, but then he had to get up and do the dino stomp while roaring.

Finally, she had to just get him in her arms and lay down with him while he tangled his chubby, sticky little finger in her hair. It took about ten minutes doing it that way, but she eventually got him to sleep. Then she laid there for a few moments longer, just holding him, breathing in the sweet scent of him and enjoying the warm weight of his body on her arm.

She looks forward to watching him grow into a strong young man and watching his personality develop, but she is scared to death of the moment when he will no longer hug her like this. When he is too old to