A few moments

Our first night, falling asleep next to Aster in the hotel, she carefully pulled my shirt so that the little space between by pajama top and bottoms was together. I loved that there is no cool breeze on my lower back. No one has ever done that for me before.

Later that night, I woke up and had a good cry in the middle of the night (because I needed to). Right when I got to the ugly part, Aster giggled in her sleep. She pulled me right out of the cry and reminded me how much joy was there.

During a parenting low, when I started crying in the middle of her grief, she looked at me- wiped my tears and said, "I love you mama. Ok."

She initially let me do every little bit of care taking for her, even though we both know how capable and smart she is. She'd look at me with smiley eyes because she knew what we both needed.

Every morning, she crawls right onto my belly, tucks in carefully and we both fall back to sleep.

Discovering ice in her water. The squealed and laughed until it dissolved.

The look of disgust when given a new food. The laughter two minutes later when she realizes she loves it.

Laughing so hard she's silent when we read our little I Make the World Better book to her in Amharic. She repeated the correct pronunciation, then laughed again at our hardly improved accent.

Her sense of humor. Walking into the kitchen first thing in the morning, hugging me and saying, "Good morning mama." Then glancing at Tommy with a smirk, walking by him without stopping and saying, "Stop it daddy."

How hard she laughs at herself. Every time she trips, when she says no to a sweatshirt - then wears mine because she's cold, whenever she does something new, or tries...

The soft whimpers to let us know that there needs to be one more song performed during a family dance party. Being so breezy, that she's always happy after the "one more."

Freezing in her tracks on Mother's Day (one day after she came home), because she was one bracelet short in Mother's Day gifts (grandmas, great-grandma). Immediately going inside and making one more...

Judah wanting to be taller and her indicating that it's ok, if he really wants to be.

Aster matching Judah's T-Rex with her own very ferocious lion.

and so many, many more...