The Best Part of the Day

... is when I lie with Nina in bed and she rests her sweet-smelling, freshly bathed head on my chest and I rub her soft, fleecy pajama-ed back and she asks me to sing the Ugly Duckling song (the long Danny Kaye version from Hans Christian Anderson which for some reason I know by heart) and as I sing I feel her begin to relax and twitch a little and hear her breathing getting heavier until she's asleep. Before I've even finished singing my very long song.....