Spring Break

"Roar!" My daughter growls at me from behind. "Roar!"
I look back at her and smile. She has only recently acquired this talent. Her small mouth opens but not the way yours or mine would, teeth bared, mouth wide open. She contorts her lips into a precious little "O" shape and elongates her chin. It is difficult to describe just how adorable it actually is. She charges me with her tiny, yet curiously strong 18-month old body. I "roar" back and she freezes in place, laughing hysterically. As she giggles uncontrollably, I crawl down the hall and into her bedroom. I can hear her padding down the hall after me, and I press myself up against the wall beside her toy box. I feel her enter the room slowly. She doesn't see me for the longest time. I watch as she picks up her baby doll and feeds it. She mumbles quiet baby talk the entire time as if trying to soothe it. The dolls body flops back and forth in her clumsy hands before being dropped on its head. She has spotted her favorite book, Where the Wild Things Are, and is headed straight for me and the book. I leap out as she is reaching down for the book. "Roar!" She goes crazy with laughter and collapses in a heap. We spend the next hour playing so hard that we both crash on her floor, cuddled under her soft fleece blanket. Poopy diapers aside, I would have to say that this is quite possibly the best way to spend Spring Break. Who needs some overcrowded beach when I have my own little paradise right here in Arkansas?