Be Still And Know

I fell madly in love on Monday at a quarter past seven in the morning.  I have fallen in love many times before of course, but there was something about this particular morning that set my heart on fire.  I opened the door to Sarah’s room and turned the light on.  Immediately, pitiful protests escaped from the little bed in the corner.  Sarah was not at all ready to get out of bed, and she was going to let me know about it.  My gentle back rubs and soft coaxing only deepened her resolve.  I was sure that if curse words were part of her verbal arsenal, a sailor would have blushed.  I reach down and picked her up, her body purposefully limp.  She was not about to assist me in being removed from a perfectly warm, comfortable bed. 

Her head was a portrait of disarray:  Hair, curly like her mother’s, was haphazardly strewn in all directions, such that only Don King would find such a ‘do fashionable. Her tender face was caked with dried snot from the cold she had caught from her cohorts at daycare, nicely accompanied by a thin line of drool cascading from the corner of her mouth.  A few strands of hair had become enmeshed in the snot, concealing the majority of her right eye.  When she finally opened her eyes, a look of utter disdain shone through, as if to say, “How dare you wake me up!” 

Before I could plop her on the toilet seat, a mischievous smile caught my attention.  She opened her mouth, her foul morning breath puncturing my senses, and proudly announced, “Mommy, I pooped!”  That would teach me to get her out of bed.  I quickly detoured back to the changing table in her room, the smell of her revenge making itself known.  I laid her down and took stock of the situation.  A dirty butt, drool, dried snot, and snot-pasted hair all had to be addressed.  Where to start? 

It was then that I fell in love.  You can have all the fragrant roses and crème-filled candies of Valentine’s Day that you want.  I’ll take this wonderful little creature laying here, complete with poop, snot and drool.  What can I say?  This is true love.