If I could experience anything in the world, I’d want to experience my daughters’ joy when she hears Sidney approaching.
Each morning, Willow wakes up blowing raspberries, sighing as if she was getting off a 10 hour shift at the factory, and simply waiting for me to come into her room. I walk in, greeting her with a good morning as I turn on a lamp and turn off her sound machine. She looks at me through her hair with her sleepy eyes, barely able to hold herself up.
Then it happens.
Sidney starts walking down the hallway.
Now Willow is awake.
And so am I because she screams incredibly loudly and claps her hands faster than anyone I’ve ever seen.
Willow is so thrilled that Sidney is in her room. Sidney instantly regrets coming into the room of a shrieking child but Willow does not care. This is the best part of her day. In fact, it seems like the best part of Willow’s day is any time she remembers that Sidney exists. If she is crawling around the house and Sidney walks into the same room, Willow speeds over. If she is in my arms, she wants to be down so she can pet Sidney.
She’s obsessed with Sidney and it’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. I feel like she truly does forget that Sidney lives with her and she gets to experience the joy of remembering Sidney is here multiple times a day. Sometimes, when she can hear Sidney in the house but we’re in another room, Willow will look up to me with a wide mouthed grin and look at the door. Then back at me. Then again at the door. Just waiting for Sidney to walk through it only to absolutely lose it when Sidney appears in the doorway, as if by magic.
She knows a few words: mama, dada, yia yia, grandpa… and Sidney. If Sidney ends up being her first word, I would not be shocked. The day that she is in a “big girl bed”, I just know that Sidney will make herself at home every single night and Willow will allow herself to be smushed but a 70lb dog just so that she doesn’t forget that she has the bestest dog in the whole wide world all to herself.
Writes with Wolves 