1 Mother 2 Another

Sunday night Cora came downstairs after
bedtime complaining, “Mommy, I can’t get to
sleep!”


I was expecting this a bit; after a week off school, Cora’s
mornings weren’t starting quite so early any more, and Sunday
morning she’d slept until I woke her up at 9 a.m. to go to
church. So I wasn’t surprised that at 7:30 p.m., her
school-night bedtime, she wasn’t quite sleepy.


“Head on back upstairs and I’ll be up in a minute to
give you another snuggle,” I said, sending her on her way.
Often the girls will need one last cuddle from me, and when they
hear they’ll get it they relax so much in their beds they
fall asleep. Cora scampered happily up the stairs and I delayed
following her for fifteen minutes while I finished watching my
recorded show.


When I finally made it to Cora’s room, she was so silent I
felt sure she’d fallen asleep. I slid into her bed and
snuggled smugly against her, breathing in her baby-ness that I can
still faintly smell.

“Mommy,” Cora’s voice
startled me from the darkness, quite alert and clearly far from
sleep, “I can’t figure something out, and it’s
keeping me awake.”


“Tell me,” I said soothingly, stroking her hair and
cozying up.


“Well,” Cora rolled towards me, “I don’t
understand why I have five toes, and only four spaces between
them!”


Ok, that I was not expecting.


“I’m sorry, what do you mean?” I stammered,
trying to catch up.


“Look,” she said with a hint of impatience, “I
have five toes on one foot and five on another, and only FOUR
SPACES on each foot! How is it possible to have less spaces than
toes? Doesn’t each toe need a space?”


So Cora and I slowly talked through the whole more-toes-than-spaces
phenomenon, examining our hands, feet, and discussing imaginary
rows of candy on a counter (If there are two pieces of candy,
there’s only one space! Oh, I get it!) for about fifteen
minutes. And I wasn’t frustrated for a moment – truly.
I love my girls’ brains, and getting a glimpse into how they
work is always fun for me.


But after that it was bedtime.