Bedtime routine.

Calvin wants me to lie on the floor with him before bed now. The dining room floor, usually.

"Mama. Lay down. You lay down right here!" Earnest hand motions from my sweet baby, who is really a baby no more.

He plops on his tummy, kicks his little legs against the floor. "Mama! You come right now!"

Coming, sweetie.

He pats the spot where I should go, and we lie side by side on the small patch of rug that hasn't been claimed by our massive dining room table. He looks at me and I look at him and we both grin. And then we giggle and whisper and make silly faces, nose to nose.

He wraps his little arm around my neck and pats my back: once, twice, three times.

"Hi Mama!" he says, delighted by the silliness and our shared out-of-the-ordinary vantage point.

We take blurry pictures of ourselves on my phone. I cover his cheeks in kisses, Mattie comes by to cover his face in licks. He gently plays with one of my stray curls, then offers me his hand to hold. We lie there, side by side. He kicks his legs against the floor as I tell myself, over and over again,

Remember this.