sweet memory.

James wrote the sweetest memory down a few days before christmas and i kept telling myself i needed to post it. i didn't listen to myself. we were too busy enjoying the holidays with our families. so...i'm finally getting around to it. enjoy. it makes my heart burst.

Everyone who knows me well already knows I’m a pretty emotional/passionate person. Around the holidays especially, my heart is generally fairly easily touched. I do try to enjoy the simple things of life as much as I can. Last night was one of those tender mercies that I’m very grateful for. My wife and mother would understand this miracle perhaps the best because they know that I’m generally a pretty heavy sleeper, even with trains, plains, and unhappy babies.

Well last night, I woke up for a treat. Typically, you must understand, when Brooklyn wakes up in the night she is not happy. She normally wakes up whining, crying, or sometimes screaming. Well last night was different. She happens to still sleep with us, though we’re working on that. Well anyway, last night I woke up randomly in the middle of the night, only awake for maybe 10-15 minutes. The treat was that as I became aware that I was awake, I noticed that Brooklyn was too. She didn’t notice me and was just sitting up in the corner of the bed, looking around.

I was absolutely amazed that she wasn’t crying. Not only was she not crying, but she looked happy. She took one look at her sleeping mother and crawled the short distance to her mother and promptly wrapped her arm tightly around Nin’s neck and cuddled up to her with her face right next to her sleeping mom’s. It was the cutest thing, but it got better! I was really worried she was going to start whining and crying to have her Mother comfort and console her back to sleep and in turn wake Melinda up, but instead, she said, “Hi.” She said it in the softest, most innocent, cutest little voice. She then just kept saying it every few moments. “Hi…… Hi……. Hi…” It melted my heart and I was grateful to have witnessed it. As I was falling back to sleep, glad to have caught that precious moment I’ll never forget, Brooklyn decided to up the ante one last time. The last thing I remember is Brooklyn crawling over to me and wrapping her cute little arm around my neck and snuggling up to me before we both fell asleep again! It’s moments like this that make parenthood worth it all! There is nothing like that feeling. I love my wife and daughter so much and have such a wonderful family around to support me. I couldn’t be more grateful for anything in this world. I love you my sweethearts!

Merry Christmas!

Love,

Dad