goodnight my little princess

The other night as I was tucking Madeline in she was being silly and 'roaring' while I sang her a song. After I'd finished I said, "Goodnight my little lion." Just playing along with her game and being silly. I got up to leave and turn off the light when all of a sudden she burst into tears, which isn't her usual behavior. She was mumbling something about the light, I thought, so I explained that the light had to be off so she could go to sleep. I went out and closed the door. Her tears turned into screaming and it was pretty obvious to me something else was going on. I listened by the door for a minute, trying to make out what she was saying. When I finally figured it out I had to fight back a few tears myself.

Almost every night the last thing I say to her is, "Goodnight my little princess, I love you." She was upset because I had said, "Goodnight my little lion" instead of princess. I opened the door, told her how sorry I was and told her how she'd always be my little princess. She felt better, but was still kind of shaken up. I gave all her animals a kiss and ended with a big kiss for her and once again said, "Goodnight my little princess, I love you." 

At the end of every day I go to bed feeling so overwhelmingly grateful for the chance to be a mom.  These two kids make my life great. I'm still looking forward to more sleep and I really don't like nursing all that much. We certainly have hard days that I think will never end. I'm excited for when they're all at school and I have the house to myself, or when they move out and Jeremy and I get to travel the world together, but I'm loving this stage of life. I really am happy. Happy to be tucking in a little princess and prince each night. Happy to be needed and loved.