Last night Charlotte woke up at midnight completely congested and acting like a real a-hole.  She wanted a Mickey ba (when doesn’t she want a Mickey ba?) and I had to pee, but she followed me into the bathroom and crawled on top of me on the toilet in the dark and screamed her congested little head off.  Then she decided we were sleeping on the couch the rest of the night with NO pillows.  She threw the pillows across the room in a fit of toddler rage.  I guess I should be thankful she acquiesced to a blanket.  She went back to sleep fairly quickly and stayed asleep for the most part.  There were some moans and congested coughs, while I stayed half awake all night checking her for a fever and praying this wouldn’t spiral into some sort of horrific illness.  I woke up, before my alarm, with a sore back and all of my post-vacation exhaustion back in full force.

When she woke up I was in the kitchen, and I heard her humming the tune to “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.”  When I walked in the living room she looked up at me, stretched her arms out and said: “oh what a nice nap we had!” and came over to hug and kiss me and tell me she was ready to pee.  And while I’ve been feeling pretty down about being home in the cold in January, I realized this motherhood thing isn’t so bad when you’ve got a little person who loves you ALL the time and says adorable things like that when she wakes up.  Not so bad at all.