Tonight I laid with the girls as they were going to sleep. Satch asked me to tell a story, knowing full well how terrible my stories usually are compared to her Daddy's. I think she figured I'd run out of steam fairly fast and swap with the 'real' storyteller. But I told her Love You Forever and substituted The Baby with the names of my girls.

 

So I got to the first rendition of the song, I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always, and as long as I'm living, my baby you'll be.

 

I told the next part of the story and sung the song again with Satch joining in at the last note with a shy hum.

 

And with each section of the story she sung a little more with me, and repeated the part where the mummy rocks her baby back and forth, back and forth...

 

And we reached the end, where the mummy gets old and the 'baby' sings to the mummy which completely choked me and Satch hummed the tune for me.

 

When the story was done and we were quiet in the dark for a few seconds she rolled over and put her mouth right up to my ear and whispered "Mummy, I LOVE that story".

 

Another minute or so passed and she gently reached over and put her hand on my chin and started rocking my face side to side. I could barely hear her muttering 'back and forth, back and forth', and quieter still, she sung the song back to me. And when she finished she stroked my hair, said "Good Night" and rolled over.

 

And Ellie, who'd been pretending to be asleep rolled over from behind me and put her arm around my waist and squeezed.