2:21 am

they had all crashed in front of a movie after a crazy napless day (i sure hope levi didn't have the farts)

this morning i woke at 2:21 am to matchbox cars and dinosaur jammies tangled up in the sheets of my marriage bed. too many bodies on the floor model clearance mattress we financed a decade ago when the twin beds of our childhoods would no longer due.

tonight, it was my turn to quietly escort the little intruder back to his own bed, repeating the loving tucking routine that brian had no doubt completed hours earlier while i was stuck in a postmodernism poetry lecture a few cities away.

this exchange of responsibility is a perfect example of where we (brian & i) are at in our lives together. when one of us (usually me) is drained, laying zombie like in a heep on the couch, the other is there to tuck the sleepy child into bed, clean up after dinner, or pack school lunches. i realize this is a very unromantic version of love, but there are few things sexier to a busy mom than a man who packs a mean sack lunch.

i will return to bed now, stealing a look at brian's sleeping face before killing the light. all of the lines and creases he has acquired over our life together disappear in sleep. miley has a field trip in the morning. and let me tell you, a good nights sleep is essential to the survival of a preschool field trip.