This weekend Luke and I were in Toledo, Ohio, my hometown, to celebrate my best friend’s wedding (I’ll post more about it next week). We got home late last night around 1:30 a.m. to a sleeping house full with my parents, aunt and uncle and their two little girls, who moved this weekend from Denver to Toledo.

One of their girls  is 3 ½ years old and will be serving as our flower girl in our wedding. I’ve always had a special relationship with our flower girl. She was the first baby we had for a long time in our family and I absolutely adore children. She calls me cousin “wuzzy.” Here’s a picture of me and our flower girl from a couple years ago.

However, no matter how much our flower girl likes me, I must admit she likes Luke a little more. From the first time she met Luke, or “Batman” as we’ve taught her to call him, our flower girl instantly loved him. He chased her, played games with her and teased her. What little girl wouldn’t love that, right?

After they played for an hour that first meeting (about the time this photo was taken), it was time for our flower girl’s nap. When her mom took her upstairs to her room, we all laughed when she started screaming “BATMAAAAAAN!!! I want BATMAN!” Her affection for Luke hasn’t changed much over the past two years.

In fact, we awoke to a similar situation this morning. I was the first downstairs to the kitchen to greet our flower girl while she ate her breakfast. “Hi!” I exclaimed, “give me a hug.” She looked at me questioningly…”Where’s Batman?” Despite the new Madeline series book in my hand, her excitement to see Luke couldn’t be contained.

But I don’t mind. It makes me really happy that Luke is a natural with kids. As someone who wants children of my own, it’s always been one of his qualities that I like the most. If our kids like him half as much as little Maddy does, I think we’ll have a very happy family.