*Gracie's excitement over jumping rope in the trampoline

*watching Madelyn happily playing in the sand table by herself and bringing me a baked pie

*looking at pictures from Gracie's second birthday

*Madelyn asking to play with Daddy's bracelet (a silver bead necklace that Jim happened to wear for the girls)

*the fact that I shouldn't have laughed when Madelyn used a pen to draw all over her bare tummy

*watching Gracie at the library as she sat next to a little boy and listened to him read to her