Romance in real life

It's a dreary evening. Around about 8pm. I come downstairs in my pyjamas and dressing gown, tired from settling Little Lady down for the night.
Hubby can be found on the couch, in his pyjamas. Running through the list of recorded programs on our Sky box to decide what we'll watch this evening. Neither one of us even notices the toys strewn around the floor anymore.
Dinner will be eaten in front of the TV. Leftovers from the healthy meals we cooked at the weekend.
Apart from the strains of a lullaby over the baby monitor, and the voices of the cast of How I Met Your Mother, silence reigns.

Then, Lily says something funny to Marshal, and Hubby laughs. Just once, just quickly. But it is enough. I take a second look at him. At his stubbled jaw, his dimples and the crinkles he has around his eyes from smiling.
"Oh," I think. "I remember you!"

And I do. Suddenly, I remember that this is not just the man who distracts the kids while I run off to the bathroom, or splits the weekend's lie-ins with me. Nope. This is my Hubby, a man who I adore.
He's the one who visited me in work every day for weeks, when I was clueless about his feelings. And the one who got up out of bed at 2am just to dance in the rain with me. Who very patiently watched me disappear two nights a week for college, for four years, just after we'd moved in together. The very Hubby whose funny stories can make me laugh in an extremely unladylike manner. The one who said "There's no way MY pregnant wife..." any time I tried to lift more than a feather while pregnant.

So I smile. And I cuddle closer. My darling Hubby turns and smiles, and that is it. We remember to share the funny and ridiculous stories of our day. The television is paused indefinitely while we chat and laugh and generally act like normal human beings instead of zombies.

Some days, the memory of each other is triggered by a sneaky kiss to the back of my neck while I'm chopping vegetables. Or a "Hey, I brought home this bar of chocolate for you". It might even be so simple as a request to be taught how to do ponytails in Little Lady's hair.

It's easy to forget about each other in the mundanity of real life. I think everybody gets bogged down to some extent in the day-to-day routine of it all. There is so much demanded of us, all day every day, that I think it's inevitable, and understandable, and even forgivable.

But, we chose each other for a reason. And even now, at the tender ages of 3.5 and 2 years, our children are showing signs of independence. They are reminding us that one day, they'll leave us behind, and it will be just the two of us again. When that day comes, we'll have all the time in the world for each other and I believe we'll make the most of it. Until then, we'll keep on muddling through. Most importantly, we'll keep remembering to remember.