Late into our Ninth Year

Here we are in January of 2020, nearly nine years into this parenting journey. These are some of my favorite glimpses of life where we are right now:

• Reed wrapping his little arms around my neck as tight as can be. 
• Beckett's huge smile while he's at hockey practice and at games. Loves being the first guy out on the ice every practice and first one out for his shift in games.
• Theo running his hands over my clothes and saying how nice I feel, and how pretty I am.
• Reed at the dining room table, looking at me, cocking his head, and asking for a hug or to sit in my lap, sometimes mid-meal.
• Beckett watching a show or a movie and just being unable to keep his body still: jumping, bouncing, sometimes laying on his belly on the ottoman and kicking his legs and moving his arms.
• Theo delaying us leaving the room at bedtime, with more and more oddball questions about life, death, and everything in between.
• The kids running in and out of the house on weekends. Theo and Beckett walk or bike to their friends' houses in the neighborhood with or without video game systems in hand. Reed runs all over our block playing mostly with his friend Kamrin, who is 6. Kamrin's treehouse is a hot destination most of the time.
• Theo and Reed playing gentle, sweet games together. 
• Reed's huge smile when he sees me from the top step of the school bus in the afternoon.
• The way the house sounds like there are three stampeding elephants who are all shouting at the same time instead of three small people whose combined weight is less than my own weight.
• Beckett laughing with his head back as I tickle him. He can sometimes look exactly like he did when he was six months old, with a wide open smile and laugh. He never wants me to stop snuggling, kissing, cuddling, and hugging him.
• Theo's requests for "tickle tornado"--where I tackle him and tickle him and he tries not to laugh.
• Reed's request for hippo rides--where he rides on my back as I pretend to be a hippo, and try to shake him off-- and for "mean nasty fighting"--wrestling where he runs and jumps on me.