I haaaate that my son wakes up a zillion times at night...but I love being able to soothe him just by picking him up, and I love knowing I'm the exact person in all the world that he wants. (He's sleeping fitfully on me right now.)

I think that's one of the biggest draws motherhood has for me. Yes, the giggles and the love and all of that...but being able to provide comfort, to erase their pint-sized worries and oversized fears, to give them rest...that's what I live for in general, and I get to give them exactly that every single day.

In fact, I think if I could give everyone a gift, it wouldn't be happiness. It'd be comfort, true rest and peace like that. It'd be a soft place for broken souls to mend or just breathe, a comfortable, familiar bed for the weary world-travelers, if only for a moment...a place for the wandering and the wounded to just lay down their burdens - and their tired bones - for a bit. Happiness has to come from within before it can come from anywhere else, but as a friend and just an open soul, I can help with comfort, rest, and perhaps even peace.

Cuteness: Little one calls all baby food "applesauce." She always wants to know what applesauce I'm giving her baby brother, so I just tell her whatever flavor is on the jar. The other day, he had peach-banana or something like that, and she commented (she always keeps up a running commentary while I feed him) that "Baby like 'dat applesauce, Mama. He like 'dat 'nana applesauce - he our 'nana baby!"

So now linebacker baby is also 'nana baby. :) It sounds almost like she's saying 'nilla (vanilla) when she says it, so I've said that too a few times. His main stuffed bear (who is an off-white color) is now 'nilla bear. :)