waited up for me.

i came in late tonight and these two had waited up for me.

so i rolled into their room and recounted the funny story from this morning.

the minute i began to tell it, nonie realized she was the star in the story and perked up a bit.

this morning,

i opened the car door to let nonie out at school and she'd fallen backwards into the car.

when i swung the door open, all i saw were mary janes and heart speckled tights floundering in the air.

it was her backpack that kept her in that position for a few seconds.

it was as if a turtle was lying upside-down - flailing its legs.

my laughter was immediate and i was relieved to see that she was laughing too.

i laughed out-loud again this evening recounting the story.

and once more earlier today sitting under the flourescent work lights of my desk - i'd let my mind wander for a bit and found it took me right back to my little girl flailing like a tipped turtle.

my co-workers wondered briefly what it was that had made me laugh.

now, late in the evening, the kids were belly laughing too.

it helped that nonie re-enacted the pose right there on her bed in her purple flowered pjs.

Then I kissed them a million times each and snuck downstairs.

Declan tiptoed down the stairs about 45 minutes later with breaking news:

I've seen extra long feet in nonie's bed.

huh?

So, a bit nervous, but realizing this definitely falls under my mother job description, I followed him upstairs. We bravely made our way to the edge of Nonie's bed where she slept soundly.

I stepped forward and pulled back the blankets and revealed

A straight line of stuffed animals were standing guard by Nonie's toes. She'd positioned them just so. Most of the barrier was made from hello kitty kat stuffed animals. Together, Dec and I laughed...we laughed out-loud.

A good laugh is like candy for my soul.

My soul had lots of sweets today.

Then, as he crawled into bed I thanked Dec

for waiting up for me.