This was what I was hoping for

Tonight, after I had come home from work and settled into what is becoming our family's evening routine, I had one of those moments that I want to remember. Nothing terribly special, but so pleasant and so ordinary that it just feels like an exemplary experience. The kind you imagine having when you are round and pregnant and daydreaming about, say, your first Christmas with as-yet-unborn baby.

It was nothing really. Miss Baby was a little crabby, in the way that she tends to be around the supper hour, so we were doing our rounds of the house, her carried on my hip, looking to pass the time until her bath. We closed all the blinds on the main floor and said our goodbyes to the neighbours, the street, the backyard, and the traffic. We sat in the laundry room and sorted the loads, then watched and watched and watched in fascination as the glass-doored front-loading washer spun the socks and t-shirts first one way, then the other. Then one way, and again the other. We had a conversation with the baby in the mirror. We made sure that PCK had enough water in her dish. We wandered into the family room to say hello to The Dada, and as he was engrossed in his book, we had some quiet fun examining the Christmas tree.

Then we sat on the floor, and Miss Baby settled happily on her back, cooing at and chewing her Rudolf book, staring up at the tree. I settled down on my side at eye-level with her. She grabbed at my belt and rolled and arched, and chewed and cooed, and drooled and stared at the tree. I watched and cooed with her. Pynchon finished his book, and came over to nuzzle her neck and make her laugh.

That's it. Nothing special. Nothing spectacular, no new developmental milestone, nothing terribly photogenic or really noteworthy. Just Miss Baby expressing her little self and enjoying her Mama, her Dada her book, and the Christmas tree. And me, in the right frame of mind, and at the right angle, to really appreciate this for what it is. My family. Comfortable and content, all together, just being with each other.

It's the kind of thing I hope I'll always remember.