#to infinity.

The other night, I was in the middle of an intense Pokemon battle with my son (he was winning, of course). The kitchen was full of this quiet chaos that fills my household on school nights - the monkeys had yet to be caged and I was in the middle of the commotion. I happened to glance up from the table and caught Anna with that devilish grin of hers on the other side of the counter. She was baking cookies for the preschoolers' bake sale - shaped like Star Wars characters because that's how we do shit around here. I just sat there, watching her as she listened to Otis' banter, her hands busy stamping various cookie cutters into dough, occasionally sneaking a scrap that was left over after the girls put the cookies on the baking sheet. I don't know how long I was looking at her until she finally looked up, but she smiled in the way that never fails to steal my breath away. She wasn't even trying, and I don't think she was even paying me any attention. Not until Otis reached across the table and snapped his fingers in my face. "Dad! It's your turn." He was annoyed, apparently he had been trying to get my attention for a while and Anna laughed, mostly at me. This is something that happens all the time, but it's not something that I always pay attention to. She is mesmerizing, really. I still haven't figured out why, or how she does, but it is in those moments, when we are distracted from each other, doing our own thing, with the kids, relaxed and not thinking about the million things that need to be done, that you can see how beautiful she really is. She still take my breath away, and if it weren't for Otis getting my attention only to kick my ass (again), I'd probably still be sitting there, watching her, still thinking about how time stops when she smiles like that.