Willow likes to put her animals and dolls to bed before she gets into bed.  This is her leopard baby.  He’s sleeping on top of a really thin, sheetlike hospital blanket that I stole from the pedi unit after we spent a week or so there when she was almost a year old.  It’s sort of a trophy. I stole a baby hospital gown, too.  I guess I was a little punchy after not stepping foot outside the hospital for ten days or so.  He’s covered up by this bitty blanket, made by a volunteer and gifted to us by the hospital when she was in the NICU after she was born.  It has a matching tiny hat and microscopic booties that she puts on her dolls.

The other day we were hanging out, cleaning up the kitchen or something, and Willow let out a huge sigh.  What’s up, girlypop? I asked her.  She sighed again.  Well, she said, it’s just that The White Stripes are breaking up and they’re such a great band.  Then another sigh.  It’s just too bad, you know?  Then she walked off. 

Almost every morning when we drive to school, if I remember to grab my iPod, we listen to The White Stripes’ We’re Going to be Friends.  And now Willow asks if she and Sophie can walk to school, all by themselves, safely, without a sound.