Hotel

It's nearly 7 a.m. in Cookeville, TN, and Biffle and I are lounging on the bed.  He's reading outloud to me from the internet, stories of how fraught brotherhood is in mythology (Cain and Abel, Romulus and Remus, etc).  We're drinking coffee.

How is this possible?  Maybelle is at my parents' house, and my parents got us a hotel room.

In a hotel!  This is the first night we've spent away from Maybelle since she was born, not counting our hospital time (which in absolutely no sense signifies as vacation time).  She is (we assume) happily playing with her Nonny, and we're just lounging.

We both woke up this morning around the time that Maybelle generally wakes up at home, so it's not that we got to sleep in, and she's on our minds.  When Biffle blew his nose first thing this morning, he thought of her, because she's delighted by the sound of nose blowing and will point to her own nose--the sound of Biffle blowing his nose is often the thing that lets Maybelle and I know that he's awake.

We'll get to see her in an hour or so.  But for now, it's a welcome change of pace to be hanging out in a hotel together.  We've had a challenging year, and we both were ready for some simple down time together.  It feels like a radically different morning.