Hearts of gold

When I'm having a hard time, like these days, when Olive is waking up every 45 minutes or so, when she is inconsolable if anything other than the boob is offered, when she whines and clings to my neck, when I am so sleep deprived that I feel wrapped in fuzz, slow, exhausted, short tempered and overwhelmed. When I don't know why she's acting like this because how could teething be that bad when there are no teeth? And oh God, is it going to be like this for the next two years until she gets her molars? And is it going to be even worse when she starts crawling? When I wonder if I will ever sleep 5 hours in a row again. When I wonder what it would be like to read a book before bed, then go to sleep and not wake up until the NEXT DAY. When all of these things are happening, I just have to drink 3 cups of coffee in a row and look at these sweet girls. Girls who love their mamas. Girls who love their mamas milk. Girls who love to snuggle their mamas all night long. Ah, these girls - they're going to be the most amazing Nobel prize winning scientists who find the cure forHIV/AIDS and global climate change, who are also very talented painters/actors/dancers/mimes who've also won Olympic medals while leading rich family lives with kind and loving long term partners and happy children. Or they'll be strippers. With hearts of gold.

The bald cutie is Etta Mae, my best friend's daughter, and Olive's best friend by association. Or so I say.