Thursday, January 04, 2007

Why Won't Lynda Write?!

I put Grace to bed tonight. Right after I finished singing "Angels We Have Heard on High" and rubbing her back simultaneously, she says, "Will you rub my back one more time?" "Ten rubs," I said. One-two-three...nine-ten. Done. I lean over and give her a kiss on the forehead. "I love you sweetie. Hope you have a good night's sleep." She immediately starts to whimper/whine, "I want you to rub my back just one more time." Thankfully she can't see me roll my eyes in the darkness of her room. "No, Grace. You'll have me in here all night with 'Just one more time'. Now give me a kiss and go to sleep." She hides her face, pouting into her pillow, so I start to leave. "NO!!! I want to give you a kiss." I smile slyly in the dark. "I'm so glad, " I say, "I really wanted a goodnight kiss from you." She gives me a little peck on the cheek. I say one last goodnight and pull her door almost closed as I exit the room. Sarah is still sitting at her writing desk as I pass her room, which corners up to Grace's room. I whisper to her to turn off the light and get some sleep. "But Daddy said I could do this," she whines. I sigh and signal to her that she's got about five more minutes and then it's lights out. She frowns, but I'm not sticking around for more protests. I'm down the stairs and headed to the fridge for a Coke.

David's sitting at the computer, but he soon moves to do some work he's brought home. I thumb through the Scholastic book order Sarah's brought home. Nothing looks worth ordering. I mention a few things I see in there to David. He has to turn down the podcast he's listening to in order to here me. I decide to leave him alone.
I should really do some work too. I brought home a book a coworker lent me. She had to read it to meet one of her performance management goals. It's called TEAM THINK and its all about how to run more effective meetings. Yes, its a book I should peruse. I'll be leading more meetings this year than ever before, and I could use the help. My friend has tagged some pages, so I glance over those topics for a while.

Soon David and I hear footsteps upstairs. A few at a time, in short bursts. Then it sounds like two set of feet moving up and down the hall. What's going on up there? Then the movement stops. We don't hear anything for a little while. Did they just both have to use the bathroom one last time? Then we hear the familiar BUMP, BUMP, BUMP,... of Grace sliding down the stairs. Next we hear her run and hide in the front room. This is a familiar pattern. Grace always gets up once after we put her to bed. Usually I just carry her back to bed, rub her back a few times, and give her another goodnight kiss. Tonight is no different. I scoop her up, carry her up the stairs, and back to her bed. As I start to leave, I see Sarah standing in Grace's doorway. I shoo her back into her own room and head towards the stairs, but she's got a story she wants to tell me. "What did Grace say to you?" Sarah asks. "Nothing," I reply, "Why?"

Here's what she said, with several ums and stops to look down at her lap.
"Well, after you put her to sleep, she came in my room and stood there for a while, so I asked her if she wanted me to rock her. She said yes, so I rocked her in the rocking chair. Then I took her back to her room and asked her if she wanted me to rub her back. She did, so I rubbed her back. Then I asked her if she wanted the door open or closed. She said open, so I left it open. Then I went back to my bed. Then I heard her going downstairs, so I said, 'You better not be asking Mommy or Daddy to rock you or rub your back, because I already did!' "

I leaned over and kissed her on the head and told her she was the best big sister in the world! The grin on her face was as wide as a mile as she crawled under her covers.


Life is good.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

very cool story. thanks for sharing

lulu said...

It really was. Why won't Lynda write more?