Childhoodtake2!

You start your nighttime routine.
You pack up their bags.
You get started on tomorrow while trying to wrap up today.
You make lunches.
You help to brush teeth,
you read stories.
You shout love.
You hold them, you try and capture the good of the day and put to bed the bad.
You try and you promise to try harder tomorrow.

You get to tuck them in.
You get to kiss noses goodnight and you get to hug.
You get this little moment in time when all is still.
When all is quiet.
When the snuggles and the stories and the night falls into place.
It is in this time, that you forget.
All the broken,
all the tantrums,
all the tears,
all the worry.
You forget the hard,
you forget the yelling,
you forget the tired.

You remember the little.
You remember the reason you started.
You remember why you picked this life, this person, this family.
You remember the soft,
you remember the kind.
You remember to hold hands and touch toes.
You remember to hold.
And to hold on.

It is at the end of the day that you ask, how did we do today?
What can we do better tomorrow?
We brush away the worry, the doubt.
You wash the hard down the drain with their bath water.
All that matters is the smell of clean, the sight of pjs, the feel of comfort.

At the end of the day, I am reminded of so much love.
I see how much of us is poured into you.
I see that you have both of us, sitting in you.
At the end of the day, we start our routines,
we read
we snuggle
we feel lighter
we are ready for our bodies to rest
to put it all behind and focus on the so much good.

Because it is at the end of the day that we share our goodnight words.
The ones that remind us of who we are
what we mean to one another.
At the end of the day, all I want is this little family.