My loves

I've been working on this post in my head for days now...with the grandest of intentions. In a perfect world this post would include beautiful pictures of each thing I am about to list. But I do not live in a perfect world, so use your imagination. :-)

Axel, since he is the newest addition I'm going to start with him.
*Dirty, little boy fingernails. How they are dirty, I have no clue. The child is rarely put down and obviously not in the dirt, however, his nails are just as dirty, if not more so than his sisters, who actually do play in the dirt.
*His tiny little cowlick. Oh, this perfect little swirl of hair just left of the center of his forehead and hairline. Why I am infatuated with it, I cannot explain. I adore it, simply because it is adorable.
*One stinky foot. Not both, just one smells perfectly of baby sweat. Baby sweat is not nasty, it is like perfume crack (as in the addictive drug, not hiney-bo's) and I find myself kissing this one stinky foot a hundred times a day.

~Amelia~
Oh this girl, What is not to love? Aside form her attitude and recent passive aggressiveness towards the little brother she loves so much.
~I am in love with her lashes. Her eyelashes are a force to be reckoned with. She uses her eyelashes to get out of trouble, to express her joy and most recently to make Momma swoon when she blows them away and wishes. (This is where a picture of her with her eyes squished shut would make my heart leap.)
~Also, worth noting is her sudden, re-attachment to me. Maybe it's wrong in some circles, but I'm not in those circles so it's not wrong where I live. I love that she is having moments of "I just need my Mommy". I love feeling that she still needs me. I love that I am the only one who can calm her when we take our ten deep breaths. I love that I am the one teaching her to stop, breathe and deal with the challenges life throws at you.
Her dance moves...until you have witnessed this, there is no explaining the mad talent this child has or the insane connection she feels to the music. Sadly, I must attribute this to her father as I am completely rhythmically challenged.

Abigail
~*~This girl is not only my love, but a huge chunk of my soul. We are going to do a unit study on Horses this fall so she can "keep her reputation as the (3rd) smartest kid in her grade". Ever since she was a toddler, she has loved learning and I have enjoyed the thrill of watching her learn.
~*~I love that she gets lost in books for hours at a time and I wish I had a picture of her reading to share, the look on her face when she is fully immersed in a story is one of my many treasures. This I can take credit for :-)
~*~I love her funk. Her funk is quite different from Amelia's...she is funky as in fun! She is always conjuring up crazy, off beat ideas in her head and I am often blow away by the seriousness of her thought process. And it's not just me, her Teacher last year noted that when Abigail has an idea or suggestion, it is not a typical 9 year old idea but something that actually could improve the situation. She loves the idea of invention and has a mind that I suspect will change the world one day.

And the list goes on...