Moments to Remember

Tonight after dinner Reegan was prancing around like a little 3 year old fairy.  And Riley was telling me some stories about her friends and I was thinking "I cannot remember Riley at Reegan's age...much less a baby."  Those first 2.5 years it was just us and her and it was like watching her life through a magnifying glass.  Every event was huge and memorable and etched in my brain forever.  Or so I thought.  But then our family expanded and the girls started growing on fast forward and things were happening faster than I could possibly keep up.

Riley has strep throat.  (not much of a transition but still wanted to mention it).  On the upside we knew pretty much after 1 day and so she got on antibiotics right away.  Anyway, she woke up super early this morning (before 6am!) and wanted to color in her room.  She made a book.  She cut out the pages, wrote on them, colored them and stapled them together.  When it was time to pick a story tonight she first picked Chores Chores Chores! but then she said she wanted to read me her story.

And so she began:  "I Love. I Love.  By Riley Ankenbauer" and she read that just like I picture her giving her first book report.  Page 1:  "I love my mother."  Page 2:  I love my brother (and then she says to me "even though I don't have a brother.")  Page 3.  I love my sister.  Page 4:  I love my father.  Page 5:  I love stuffed animals.  Page 6:  I love my things.

I took away so many thoughts and feelings from her beautiful story.  I wonder if she will like writing as much as I do.  I loved it as kid and used to write fiction stories for my mom's friends.  I think she was very proud of herself for the part about the brother...showing that she understands the writer of the stories she reads may not be writing about real thing/people.  And most important, my little girl has lots of love in her heart.

I had to write this story here so it would be one I could always remember.