sisters

This morning, summoned by dramatic, repeated shrieks of, "Mommmmmy! It's waaaaakkkke-up time!" I left the brief moment of quiet I had just stumbled upon and opened the door to my girlies' room. (It was Sophie. Yes, she does this every morning. It is something we will be working on when I am brave enough.)

My Little J, squirreling around in her bed and ready to go, popped her rumpled head up in a quick answer to my own "good morning." Aida, on the other hand, drawn so rudely from the depths of slumber by the screams of her sister, mumbled from her side of the room and burrowed a little deeper into the covers. I sat on the edge of her bed, rubbing her hair and back as she woke up enough to giggle. Taking this as a sign, Sophie ran from her own bed, jumped into Aida's, and wrapped her arm around her sister's neck, flinging her leg over her waist. She nuzzled her nose in Aida's crazy morning hair, holding on for dear life. There they were, lying as close as they used to when they were in the womb. Sister-spooning.

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This afternoon during "Quiet Resting Time" (that phrase must always be put in quotation marks), I heard giggles escalate into full-blown laughter and full-blown laughter escalate into banshee-like screaming. I thought it might be a good idea to peek through the open door and make sure everyone was relatively uninjured. I found 2 little girls, again in Aida's bed, wrapped up in each other, wrestling and rolling from one end of the bed to the other. A minute later, there was a crash followed by a bang. That was Sophie, falling out. She climbed back up and the wrestling continued. As did the laughter and the screaming.

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Earlier this week we made pizza dough. My girls love measuring and spooning and stirring. They do not, however, love listening to the mixer - especially when the dough hook is in use and the whole apparatus dances across the kitchen counter. So when the KitchenAid started doing its thing, Aida and Sophie scampered out of the kitchen and into the safety of the rocking chair. When I turned the mixer off I heard the sweetest little conversation coming from the girls' room.

Sophie: "What does this say?"

Aida: (nonsense syllables)

Sophie (nodding her head, I am sure): "Oh....What does this say?"

etc.

There they were, side by side in the rocking chair, Aida "reading" to Sophie (see picture above). I wanted so badly to go in there to be with them, but I fought the urge. I didn't want to barge in on such a moment, didn't want to break the spell. So I set to work in the kitchen, sweet music in my ears, listening to these sisters love each other.

{So as to ensure that no one is under any false impressions here...I was only about 4 minutes into sweeping and mopping the house when the sisterly reading came to its end, after which the girls followed me around, whining and fussing (including quite a bit of crying). They definitely pushed my mama patience to the limit. So then I banished us all to Quiet Resting Time (or I guess I should say "Quiet Resting Time"). Just keeping it real here.}