Ode to Chup

The girls have been asking for a bedtime love story. I've already told them the whole story of their parents courtship (which they love to hear) so I had to come up with something new for the bedtime story telling ritual.

I decided to tell them mine.

In two parts.

Part one:
I fall in love. Love at first sight. I know I am going to marry him. We have our first kiss ("You aren't supposed to kiss before marriage." Jane is scandalized!)Things are rosy. I get the courage to tell him that I love him. He replies, "I don't love you the same way."

Then, I say, "To be continued" and they moan and complain that it is not fair to start a story and not finish it! IT'S NOT FAIR!

Part two:
We break up. He can't live without me. I knew it all a long. We get married.

And then the girls ask for more of the story. Which goes something like, we get married, rent out the other side of Stephanie and Christian's starter home, pretend like Claire is our baby, want a baby of our own, cry a lot because we can't have a baby of our own, move to a condo, move to our little gray house on the other side of town, have a dog named Ralphy, Ralphy dies, move to Retro House, have The Chief . . .

And by that point, the girls are out. Snuggled up like puzzle pieces on our royal-sized bed. I roll in slow motion off the side where I tip toe out the door. Click, goes the light.

Up the stairs I find that Chup has fallen asleep reading books to Ollie. I think about how amazing it will be to keep adding bits to our love story. How the day I was going into labor I looked at Chup and wondered if it were humanly possible to love him any more than I did at that moment. How seeing him snoozing with my sister's baby boy made me realize that I could.

Oh, we're just getting started.

Chup and I.