My Love

My daughter has a routine every night: after dinner I give her a bath, then she drinks a bottle of warm milk, and then maybe plays a little bit before she goes to bed at 7 pm. Every night part of the bedtime routine is that I hold her while standing next to the crib and I rock her while humming a hush-a-bye tune. Last night was the same as it's been for a while now, with her head on my shoulder as I hummed to her, until she lifted her head and looked into my eyes and smiled her gentle, intelligent, sweet smile. She started swaying with me and in her tiny quiet voice sang a couple a la la's and I felt so connected to her and the love I felt for her was overwhelming. I continued to sing to her and she continued to look into my eyes and smile. Then she shoved her index finger as far as it would go into her nose and made me laugh, which was good because I was getting kinda choked up. I love her so much.