...when skies are gray

The other day I was sitting on the ground outside playing with Luke when Laurel suddenly came up and started singing You Are My Sunshine. I have never heard anything so beautiful, I think I almost cried. I didn't even know she knew that song, she must have learned it in school. And what's interesting is, she won't sing it on demand. I'll ask her to sing it to me and she'll give me a scheduled time. Generally it's after something concrete in her day; like after preschool or if I buy her M&Ms (so smart that girl). I've really begun to realize that my years with them loving me so affectionately are numbered. She won't always run out of her room in the morning and beg me to spend "5 more minutes" snuggling with her on the couch. Certainly as an adult I don't snuggle with my mom...that would just seem weird. And yet, it seems perfectly normal to me that I want to snuggle with my kids forever. Why must it stop?!?! Maybe we'll break with tradition and be the forever-snuggling family. Look for it on 20-20 in about 30 years.

So, it's gray and rainy outside and it got me to thinking about that. Then, as I was strolling through my tagged favorites again and I came across this picture and it is so the opposite of gray and rainy that I thought I'd share it. This is from an ETSY shop called Erin Jane Illustrations. (http://www.erinjaneshop.etsy.com/) Maybe it's the kid in me, or the daydreamer...but I'm always attracted to illustrations that are dream-like. My guilty pleasures are movies that are total fantasy, Narnia, Alice-in-Wonderland, Coraline, Harry Potter. Luckily Laurel seems to like them too. Ever since we saw Coraline together we've been putting big buttons on our eyes and calling ourselves Other Mother and Other Laurel. I love that kid.