To My Sweet Girls

You lost your mind. You always do after a nap. I didn’t mean to let you, you just fell asleep on the drive home from Gigi’s.

I woke you up and took you inside… and you ran upstairs and I heard the cries start. Calling for your big sister.

I went into your closed room, the cries having turned into lamenting wails. You screamed for me to leave. “Ok, I’ll be in the next room if you need me.”

The cries continued and I had to brace myself against the bed to keep from going back. A few minutes passed, and I went to check again.

“I want my sissy! And my room is so messy I don’t want to clean it up.”

Before I would have said “well you have to, especially now that you’re throwing a fit and screaming for everyone else in the house to hear!”

Instead I said “Oh that’s what I came to do, come pick up all of this for you, will you sit on the bed and keep me company?”

You stopped and shoulders dropped, face softened. “Oh ok mommy… I still miss sissy” you confessed as more tears started to pour down again.

“I know sweetheart, you love her so much and she’s not here right now and that makes you sad.” I said kneeling picking up the toys. You nod. I continue talking before you can start crying again “Wow look at this pen!”

“Can you stay and cuddle me?”

I climbed onto the bed and hugged you, firmly, and remembered reading “When hugging a child, don’t be the first to let go.” So I didn’t.

And you didn’t. For 3 minutes.