Happy little moments

My best childhood memory was an on-going "date" my Papa and I had. Since I spent many of my nights over at Nana and Papa's house, Papa would read to me every night while I was in bed. What did we read? The Chronicles of Narnia of course. He would read and read and read, and when he would say it was time for bed I would beg for just ONE more chapter.
Not only did we read at night, once a week we went out to breakfast. We would get up super early to go down to the Urban Onion before I went to school.
Our order never, ever changed. Papa: a triple tall no room americano. Me: vanilla steamer. Share: The most amazing apple pie you can possibly imagine (this is in fact the pie that Ricky and I shared for our wedding "cake".)Sean, our faithful waiter would have everything ready for us within minutes of seeing us park our little fannies in a seat. Add in a snooze inducing fire and Aslan...you have the perfect morning.

I probably don't have to tell you that the Chronicles of Narnia are and always will be on my top 5 list of favorite books largely because of the precious times with my Papa. When I found out that I was pregnant with Em I was so excited for the day when I could share these stories with her (and obviously now Eli:)

About 2 weeks ago I decided to start reading more than Green Eggs and Ham to the babes before they go to sleep. So of course I pulled down my trusty copies of C.S Lewis' masterpiece. I figured they would still be way over Em's head but that it would be fun (at least for me!) to try.

Poor Eli, he just doesn't have a chance! 4 pages in every night he is face down and drooling into his pillow. But Em has really surprised me. She sits totally still right next to me and LISTENS! Wonder of wonders. Not only does she listen, she actually asks questions. "Why did he shut the door mommy?" "Why did she say that?" "Why was that mean?"

Em doesn't even argure about bed time anymore. I think she is just as excited as I am to settle in and crack open the book. We are only reading one chapter a night at this point, and we have started with the Magician's Nephew.

I love that I now get to share my favorite stories with my favorite babies. And I would be lying if I said I didn't just burst a **little** bit with pride that my 3 year old listens, engages in, and understands the Chronicles of Narnia.