Happy Day

Will has moved full force from being every bit the baby brother and a reluctant big brother to expert big brother verging on taking on Matt for title of man of the house! Will is Lillie's protector/shadow, and he looks out for her every moment of the day.

I have do everything in my power to keep him from waking her up as he snuggles next to her

in our bed in the morning, as he can hardly go 12 hours without his "Lillie-fix!" Once he's finally got her up, the play-by-play of her "actions" (which of course, are very few) begins. First, things first, Will checks on her toes! "She got toes! She got toes!" said with the excitement that would convince anyone that she grew toes overnight! And of course, in Will fashion, he can't just say it once, and though I don't have the patience to test it, I think he would repeat himself upwards of 100 times if weren't acknowledged. And God bless Lillie, he isn't content just to visually check, but he grabs each and every digit and "counts" them, giving each a tug, presumably to see if it is sturdy enough for his liking (after all, you can't trust toes that grew in overnight...)

After the toe check, comes the introductions. "I you brudder, Lillie, I you brudder." (Again, said

more times than I care to think about while he hovers approximately one millimeter from Lillie's face). Apparently Will cannot remember that Lillie always has toes, and he also believes that Lillie can't remember who he is. (These two have the makings of an interesting relationship). Introductions are usually followed by adoration time, "hey pretty girl," "she see me," "I onna hold her," etc. etc.

After introductions and admiration time, Will begins telling me what Lillie is or is not doing. For example, "she crying," "she not crying," "she choke" (any sneeze, cough, or really coo), "she not choke" (once Will realizes the noise was a sound and not actual choking), "she rest," (followed by "I wake her up..."

Will narrates Lillie's day until he remembers that he has a train table, at which point he thunders off to check on Thomas and the gang back at the roundhouse. Of course, periodically he checks in, often bring Thomas to Lillie because "she play trains." Heaven help her, the baby has already been to the train museum three times and she's eight weeks old! He also has to check in with Sophie and her school, loudly demanding a pencil and periodically shocking us with his garbled repetition of "Leonardo" or "Michelangelo" or randomly announcing that 100

is his favorite number when we didn't know he could count past 11.

Will doesn't leave Lillie alone for too long though, and more than once, I have been thankful that Sophie is here to help me protect Lillie from Will's tendency to "love big!" He never means any harm, and actually, his desire is to protect. This week he insisted that I re-write the

lyrics to Rock-A-Bye Baby because as he adamantly and repeatedly told me about "the bough breaking," "I fix it Mommy. I fix it Mommy! Cradle no fall!" So now I sing, "When the bough breaks, brother will fix it, and then in the cradle together they'll sit." He just beams (and makes his pleased grunting sound).

One of the most endearing things Will tells Lillie each day can't

be fully appreciated without hearing his Sling-Blade-like delivery, but he just gets so overcome with love for Lillie, and really, love for life that he comes up, pushes his head against hers, and with sort of a grunt, tells her over and over, "It's a happy day, Lillie! A happy, happy day!"

And so even though many days lately have been full of tears (either the kids, mine, or both), Will reminds us that each day we have together is a happy day. These are happy days. Many are hard, most are long, and all are exhausting, but that doesn't mean they aren't happy. Because I am watching new relationships develop and existing relationships deepen. I am watching my children learn and grow. I am spending my days, for better or worse, with them, and not only is my love for Sophie, Will and Lillie growing, but their love for one another is growing. And when children are learning and love is growing, even through tantrums, tears, and toe-pulling, it is a happy day.