happiness.

Chris and I are watching a special on 20/20 about happiness. It's been a pretty interesting show, and one of the people interviewed talked about these 'moments of perfection' that he's experienced. Today was a good day for me because, even though Ben was Super Grouch this morning (he's been waking up really cranky lately), I had several of those moments with him. I wanted to write them down before I forgot them.

• Ben understanding me when I told him to bring me his blanket. I was getting ready to put him down for bed tonight and we were going through our normal nighttime ritual: get his blanket, turn on his music, dim the lights and read Goodnight Moon. I had dropped his blanket on the floor and put him down and asked him to go get it for me. He walked (!) over to it and picked it up, and slowly toddled over to the chair where I sat. He gave it to me and held up his arms for me to pick him up. Suffice it to say that I sat with him and hugged him close for an extra minute or two.

• Ben hugging me. Wrapping his arms around me and patting me on the back with both hands.

• Watching Ben give headbutts to his dad.
  

• Watching Ben get so excited he can't handle himself when his dad comes home from work. He peers over the baby gate and says, 'Dih-Dee!'

• Ben humming along to track 2, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, on the cd that he falls asleep to. Sometimes I even hear him humming in his monitor. He hasn't got all of the notes quite on key, but it's not for lack of trying. Tonight I read his book to him a couple extra times so I could sit with him while he hummed.