Frozen Moments

There are so many little moments with Landon that I try to freeze in my mind forever. He's such a marvelous mix of sweetness and curiousity that JP and I can spend hours repeating the things he's said and done to each other and laughing. I think this is why we yell at each other less about politics- we're too busy recounting the way Landon tucked his puppy and shark and car and golf ball and plastic horse and big dump truck into bed with him.

We always read 2-3 books as part of bedtime. After eleventy million recitations of "B is for Bulldozer" and freak-outs that "LOOK MAMA! a snowman!" on page 8 and "yes, Landon, the snow man is STILL THERE... on the page where it is permanently frozen forever," I misplaced the book in a stack downstairs and brought up a few new options. Change is good. Piggies was the first up and if you don't have this book you should get it because it's a delightful little bedtime stories that ends in kissing your wee one goodnight, and the illustrations are fabulous. Now I'm sure this little memory won't come across as well in blog format, but I need to record the story to go back and read later when Landon is a man of the world at thirteen and makes me grind my teeth in frustration more than he makes me melt with the adorableness.

So we're snuggled in his bed, being introduced to the various piggies, and the book says, "Sometimes they're hot piggies" and Landon immediately cries, "mama! we gotta blow on them!" just like when his food is too hot. He blew enthusiastically at the page and then announced they weren't hot anymore. Phew.

On the next page the piggies are "cold piggies" and Landon exclaimed, "they gotta put on some pants!!".

Okay, it cracked me up at the time.

Then after our reading was over (we finished out story time with Dear Zoo, a forever classic, and Bark George, which had dominated our reading routine for months last year), Landon snuggled in his bed while I sang him our song. He held my hand and when I was done with "Sunshine" he said quietly, "Mama home. Daddy home. And Lanan home." And then after a little sigh and a pause, added "and Tex home. and Rosie home. and Yilly home." I gave him a kiss, he let go of my hand, and I walked downstairs feeling very peaceful and happy. It's the same feeling I used to get when I was camping as a kid and fell asleep with the warm knowledge that all of my family was under the same little roof. There's a coziness and contentment to knowing you're all together and safe and sound at the end of the day and it was the first time I'd heard Landon remark on it -- that subtle difference between a house and home. We were all home.