This story on Real Live Preacher got me thinking about the last time my great big grown-up girl fell asleep in my arms in our rocking chair.
I remember a day when my youngest child had recently been born, and my three-year-old climbed into my lap in the middle a tantrum during a rare moment of her sister being asleep somewhere else.
I was reluctant to pick her up but really needed her to quiet down. She sat on my lap and burrowed her head into my chest the way she used to do when she was a baby. Gradually she stopped crying and slowly fell asleep.
I sat there for a long time, holding her, watching her hair around her face and her chest move with her breath.
I thought, then, that this might be the last time she fell asleep in my arms. As it turned out, it was. I rarely sat in the rocker alone after that, and she’d already mostly outgrown spontaneous naps. I’ve always been glad I took that hour to just sit and hold her and watch her sleep.
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