A perfect evening

Today was a perfect evening. My daughter woke up from her afternoon nap as soon as I reached home from work. As always, she was delighted to see me, and wanted to be held. I cuddled her, played with her, then gave her a snack, and took her to a neighbor's place, where she hung out with my friend's son (who is 3.5 years old), his dad and her daddy. She got to play with some new toys like a microwave, toaster oven, etc, and had a blast. She also marveled at their newborn son, who was napping in his bassinet, and looked oober-cute :).

We came back home, and then took turns feeding her dinner. My dad then took her for a short walk in the community while I ate dinner, after which I took her inside our bedroom to read a book.

We have been reading to her since she was born, but lately we have made it a ritual before bedtime. It helps calm her down and forms a routine. We read Houglas Douglas today, and she can now identify the bear on the cover page of the book :). I then took a First Words book, and taught her to recognize and point a cat, ball, apple, clock, balloon and fishy. I showed her once and when I asked her the second time around, she pointed at everything correctly. It's so much fun to see how babies can grasp things so quickly. We repeated our so-called lesson in front of her daddy and grandparents when they returned from their walk and they were delighted. We also asked her to point out all her favorite soft toys in the room, show her tummy, and give mumma a kissie - and she went through all of this like a champ :).

She then rolled around and crawled in bed, learnt how to climb onto a box and had fun with her toys.

I then changed her diaper, and gave her bedtime bottle of milk to her. Once she was done, she wanted to play with my tummy (which she does everyday :))....I think once she does that, we truly know that she is ready to sleep. I laid her on my chest, where she positioned her ear exactly above my heart, so that she could hear my heartbeat. She moves around until she finds that perfect spot, and then settles down. She keeps moving her head from one side to another, and after 5-10 mins of being quiet with eyes open, she slowly drifts into sleep. It is a divine feeling to hold her like that, and I could do that forever.

Sweet dreams my angel.....your mumma is right next to you, holding you near and hugging you tight!

There was nothing new about today evening, yet it was so special, and simply perfect!

PS: The picture was taken in a hotel room during our recent Alaska Trip....that day, we were in a similar kind of playful mood as tonight :).