whenever I see your smiling face, I have to smile myself ....

This is so true for me. The smiles that greet me, the laughter that resounds in this home. Oh, how I relish that!

My daughter has this laugh. I cannot even find the words to describe (and believe me, I have tried to think of ways endlessly ...) it is the most delicious sound on the planet. I heard it twice today, for two very different reasons, but clearly because she was overwhelmed with giddiness.

So, the first, we're in the car this AM, grabbed coffee, and the obligatory {groan} bribery/bring to your friends-at-your-brother's-early-morning-hockey-game munchkins, and I hand them back to her, she grabs the box, and literally says to herself, as if I am not even there anymore (I am so not kidding ...) STRAIGHT to that zen zone, people.

"ah, munchkins, MY munchkins ....!!" and then rolls into *that* sound. That deep in her throat,cackle with a low raspy sound. "hah hah hah hah"

I nearly drove off the road. Laughed so damn hard.

She finally came out of the zone and says, what's so funny? Did someone tell a joke on the radio? She did it again tonight playing air hockey with C. She was in that zone again, and had just scored against him. That noise just rose up and tickled my funny bone. Oiy. kills me.

And he, the C-man, had me in stitches this morning. Early to rise for the hockey game, and he is attempting to get dressed in his clothes with the lights off in his room, trying to stay quiet so as not to wake the 'lil sistah. I hear this odd noise, a few grunts, and then fabric rustling. I sneak (yep, needed to not halt this one in the middle ... had to investigate) up to the door, and there he is bare chested, jeans halfway up, the bottoms under his feet, and the waist struggling over the hips (people, he is 51 lbs here, what hips?!) and literally stepping around the room (picture the jeans under his heels, and he's not able to free them) as if these are Brooke's Calvin's from 1977.

I almost fell down laughing so hard. I had to walk away and try to stop the laughter, but he caught me sitting down and looks me in the eye with a still bare chest, but jeans on this time, and says with barely opened eyes "what's so funny?"

I just had to hug him .... explained that the way he was "dancing" to get his jeans on looked quite funny, and I had not seen that before. We laughed some more, and by this time, S needed to know the source of the laughter, so we told him, this time both laughing.

OOOOO ... I could eat them both UP! And really, each of these is SO a location story, but I had to share.

I just have to smile when I think of it all. These ARE the best days .....