zip zip

Amelia loves zippers. She can be in the middle of a full-on tantrum and if she suddenly catches sight of your hoodie zipper, she can be distracted enough to forget what upset her in the first place.

On the second afternoon in Cleveland, Amelia was supposed to be napping. (If I had a nickel for every time I typed "supposed to be napping" in a blog post....) And I was trying to catch some zzzz's too. I knew full well she was playing instead of sleeping, but I was determined to rest because she was safe and confined in her packnplay. I let my mind drift.

Then I thought I heard a quiet zip-zip of a zipper. My mind was groggy but I knew she had nothing in the packnplay with her that had a zipper. She had a little toy truck her daddy had finally given in to letting her keep when he put her to sleep - no zipper. She was wearing her leggings and t-shirt - no zipper. So I rested my mind and tried to drift away.

A few minutes later, Amelia said, "What's this?"

I squinted in her direction. My glasses were on the night-stand. I can't see anything but shapes without them. But still I was committed to napping, so I left them there and went to her blindly. She had a green soother in her mouth and a pink one in her hand.

"You know what that is. It's a soother."

"What's this?" she repeated.

I took the pink soother from her and then decided to reach down into the packnplay to take the toy truck she'd taken to "nap". I felt around and my hand came to the truck. But I also felt a couch cushion that she'd been given, to rest her little head on. And then I felt a lot of cottony softness all around.... ALL around... and I picked up the pillow. It was unzipped (of course) and it was half-deflated, its stuffing blanketing my daughter's bedsheet like a cloud.

"AMELIA PERON!"