Working Backwards

I will tell you all about happily ever after.

There is a prince charming. He makes cocoa with whipped cream on top, and lets me steal his favorite T-shirts. He takes pictures for me - pictures of everything. Time escapes me - like finger combing my hair right after it's been cut - my hand keeps moving automatically, thinking there should be more, but coming up short. The prince stops time for me. The prince and his pictures.

And most of the pictures are of the ballerina princess and the court jester - a perfect slice of happily ever after. The ballerina is smart and funny. Determined and impatient. Silky blonde hair perpetually capped with a princess crown, and lips thick with grape lip gloss. Forever a fairy, with crazy-mad soccer skills - she is 4. The jester is 7. His room is filled with costumes, props, time machines and dinosaur bones. He's an artist, a dreamer, a laugher who read when he was two, and sleeps about 5 hours a night.

And here I am in the middle. I am lucky. I love my job (kids choreographer). I love my hair (not always, but Nikki just cut it for me). I love my family (all of them - even the once upon a time parts). I love my brown sketchers shoes ( a gift from the prince).I love my dogs (one more than the other). I love my life. Really, truly, I do.