I suppose all girls have a maternal instinct in them, but some seem to have it stronger than others. In our house, whether it is helping navigate the playground equipment or helping navigate through life's new adventures (like Kindergarten), there is one person my littler girls always look to--Tori. Macie calls her "Toowa" now and I hear it all day. "Toowa, out," "Toowa, push" "Run, Toowa"--and Toowa always goes out and Toowa always pushes and Toowa always runs. And last night at the school open house, when Isabelle walked excitedly down the school hallway holding Jamie's hand, but then stopped suddenly at Mrs. Sickman's kindergarten door, Tori put her arm around her and brought her in. (I would have taken a picture, but I was capturing it with my own mind's eye). She showed her all the fun stuff about kindergarten and even the letter that she sat on for circle time when she was a kindergartner. My girls count on me, but they also count on Toowa--and I love that.





I asked them the other night how many children they thought they wanted to have when they grew up. Isabelle said, "I want to have 3 girls just like you" (of course). And Tori said, "Well, since I sort of help sometimes and know how fun it is, I think I want like 10 or 11."