It's official. I am completely beside myself for this kid. I've loved him since the day he was born, but an incident occurred last week that made me realize that his happiness is truly my priority.

Every night since Vincent had arrived Edwin and I stumble around in a carefully choreographed stupor as we close-up shop and prepare for bed. After an evening of conversations filled with daily happenings of "Yep, you wouldn't believe the poop he had this morning" or "Hey, smell this..." we eat dinner and then watch the boob-tube. Like clock-work, before we go to bed, Edwin usually feeds the fish, covers Charlie's cage and makes sure all the doors are locked. I take Vincent up to his crib, go back downstairs to let the dogs in and gather at least four clean bottles for Vincent. One for his 3am snack, one for his 5am h'oeur deurve, one for his 7 am buffet, and one extra for hiccup relief (just in case). These series of events are repeated every evening - probably to deter us from realizing how exhausted we truly are.

One of those evenings, our routine had been completed and Edwin was wondering why I hadn't shown up for bed. I'm in Vincent's nursery and I hear Edwin's voice from behind me, "What tha' hell...". Of course he should be confused. I had pulled Vincent's crib away from the wall and into the middle of the brightly lit room. Poor Vincent's expression was something like, "so we're re-arranging my room at this hour? Do you really think directly below the ceiling fan is the best place for my bed? Shouldn't we ask the doctor about this first?" There I was, fumbling with the back of his crib mobile and in an exhausted reply, I say "The batteries on his mobile died out and I have to replace them. He likes to wake up to this mobile. He smiles and loves this mobile - it's our morning ritual."

I had broken the routine and for that one moment, I stopped and realized how truly tired I was. Painfully tired. But it didn't bother me. "Peanut likes to wake up to this mobile. He smiles and love this mobile and by God, I'm gonna fix this mobile for his morning ritual."