Mommy, snuggles!

Typically the bath and bedtime routine is Eric's job.  With him not getting home until 6:30 most days he only gets an hour and a half with Evie before her bed time.  He's gladly taken on this chore. It's their special time together.

In the Fall two nights a week this duty falls on me.  Eric is at Church for two nights leaving me with a full day of parenting, including bed and bath time.

Evie's normal routine includes a bath, putting on jammies, and having her hair brushed.  As some point I bring up a bottle give hugs and kisses and bless Evie.  Eric continues with a book some nights, and then prayer time while rocking Evie as she drinks her bottle.  Then he/I put her in her crib, turn on the sound machine and head down stairs.

But tonight as I got Evie out of the tub and wrapped her up in her hooded towel she asked for snuggles.  So I wrapped her up extra tight and gave her a big squeeze.

I toweled her off, got her dressed and while I was brushing her hair she said, "Mommy! Snuggles!" over and over.

Finally I asked her if she wanted to snuggle in my bed.  This is something usually reserved for lazy weekend mornings.  She was insistent and we'd had a rough evening, so I obliged.

I needed Evie snuggles, too.

I ran down for her bottle, snagged her blankie and scooped her up for a few minutes of snuggle time in our bed.

We quietly sang our bedtime prayers, thanked Jesus for our blessings and asked Mary to protect us tomorrow.  All the while a steady stream of tears rolled down my cheek.

See, Evie and I have had a rough week or so.  Not the first time, and most certainly not the last.  She's going through another patch of testing her boundaries and is taking it out on me.  Sunday she slapped me across the face during Mass, and then pulled my hair so hard I choked back tears.  All before she let out a scream of terror.  (Of course, during the Eucharistic prayer).  Later, she ran across the parking lot after breaking free from me. And then flailed out of her carseat while I tried to buckle her in. (you know, all in front of the off duty cop patrolling the church parking lot).

It hurt.  Not so much physically, at this point that pain was gone.  But, emotionally.  My little baby is growing up into a kid who is learning boundaries, acceptable behavior and how to make good choices.

So tonight, when those innocent blue eyes looked up and asked for mommy-snuggles I had to give in.

For just a few short minutes tonight the week of battling her hitting, screaming and hair pulling washed away and my not-so-tiny baby and I laid in bed and snuggled.