Grrrrrl

I gave platelets this morning, my first time doing so. It's a relaxing business, being that you can't use your hands and takes 2-3 hours (I had brought my reading and stitching, forget it). I picked out Little Women to watch, and cried through it almost from the start. The woman who sat next to me later on to donate had the same reaction, though she had missed the first half-hour. Afterwards, in the break room, we sat there red-eyed, minding not to cross our legs and making sure to drink drink drink, and we talked about what wonderful women's literature there is, how we couldn't wait to read this or that book to/with our daughters and at what age, and then about how great it is to have daughters (both acknowledging, yes yes, sons too, absolutely).
Chloe received her first baby doll from her aunt Christiane and uncle Jean-François in France, a doll that makes sounds in response to different touch. If at first Chloe was a little worried, she has now entirely embraced "Darla", tickles her feet to make her laugh and gives her her bottle. It starts that early, I had no idea.
Chloe takes care of us too, she asks for hugs, and gives good ones, patting us on the back. She puts her hands on my cheeks and holds my face. We've had unseasonably warm weather this past week, so last weekend we got to loll around the grass at a neighborhood park, and Chloe crawls around seeking out sticks to give Emmett to chew on. She also happily crawls off to 10 feet away and carefully examines leaves and acorns for 20 minutes at a time.
This is her second Xmas, though she largely slept through her first one, but she is still magically unaware of it all, which is nice. She's not counting the days until she opens her pressies, and though Mike and I tacitly didn't shop for her, I think we both indulged our inner children and got her toys anyway (for us to play with with her).