Her smile makes me smile!

Anyone who has photographed a two year old can tell you that it is very difficult to get the shot you want. Instead, you end up with whatever picture said two year old allowed you to capture.

This weekend my mom took two photos of Sophia that positively captured my toddler’s personality two a T. These are the smiles and looks I hope to get on film whenever I take pictures of Sophie.

See if you can guess her character from these:

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P is for Pancakes and Penny.

Do you remember back when you knew a whole lot about nothing? As we get older we have all of these facts and factoids running through our brains that its hard to remember when we first learned some of the information we now take for granted. Like, “what is the capital of Texas?” or “what makes the sky appear blue?” We are, after all, so used to knowing it all. I think even when we knew little we still thought we knew everything.

My niece is 4 years old. She likes to remind me that she is almost 5 years old. She is a lofty 5 year old who aspires to be 16 years old and filling her dad’s hair with gray.

Yesterday she very excitedly brought me her little wallet that was filled with $16 worth of bills. Three $5 bills and one $1 bill. She got this money from various family members after one of her teeth prematurely fell out after an encounter with a corn on a cob.  Lucky kid, huh? I remember getting just $1 from the tooth fairy and cannot recall any other family member even attempting to also pay for the tooth that fell out. What are they trying to do…put the tooth fairy out of business?

Anyway, I digress (as usual).

Nerdy Tia Mel (that’s me) has a habit of turning everything into a lesson. I said to my niece, “do you see that person on your $5 bill? That is Abraham Lincoln. He was a President of the United States a long time ago.”

She looked at the bill, looked at me, and said, “Ooooh.” (Yeah, I translated it to, “Who cares?”)

Caring little for her blank stare, I kept on and added, “He is also on the penny.”

This is when my niece looked at me and said, “Tia, no one is on the penny. Its too dark.”

Okaaaay. Apparently, I am the only nerd out there actually trying to impart some wisdom of the small details we are surrounded with. We eventually got around to talking about how they are working on the letter P in school and how in honor of the letter P, Wednesday is Pajama day and they will be eating Pancakes.

Hmm. I never did get around to showing her a penny. Note to self to bore her again one day soon.

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Sponsor Me at March for Babies!

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When life kicks you in the “_____”.

I am sure you can fill in the blank.

I have been suspiciously quiet on my blog, haven’t I? No pictures or blogs from Christmas or New Years. It’s very unlike me. I have to be honest and tell you that I haven’t known how to come on here and tell you about my holidays because the aftermath of the holidays have been such a harsh kick in the ass. There. I said it. ASS.

A few months ago I told you about the Light the Night Walk. We walked in honor of my friend’s husband, Gary who was battling peripheral t-cell lymphoma. At the time of the walk Gary had recently had his last trip up to NIH in Washington DC and was doing well. The next time I saw Gary was in my home on Christmas Eve. They brought their son and had a great time with us. Gary seemed to be recovering really well. His hair was growing back. He was in awesome spirits. This was the third Christmas Eve, Samantha and Gary spent with my wild and crazy family. I am so sad to have to say that this was the last Christmas Eve Gary would spend with us. He fell ill on Christmas Day and after a week in the hospital passed away on New Years Day.

To say that the last 11 days have been difficult would be a massive understatement. I do not know how to put into words the grief I feel for my friend who will now have to raise her 2-year-old son without this father. She has to start over at 30 years old. It’s incomprehensible that in the span of one week we go from talking about planning more children, joking about sex and chores and date nights to life insurance policies, social security, and planning what I am going to say at Gary’s service. Last Wednesday we said farewell to Gary’s physical form. It was really a lovely service. Gary would have appreciated the fact that it was standing room only at one point.

Like I said, the past 11 days have been a kick in the ass. It’s very hard watching and listening to your friend grieve. It’s so easy to be there for your friends during the good times. The birthday parties and happy celebrations. It’s nice and fun to be able to laugh and joke. But the grieving process is hard. It’s a physical pain that I feel and I know that if I feel as if my heart is breaking…my friend is even worse off. Now is when it is important to really show up and be the friend you need to be.

Luckily, Sam has a great support system. We have a terrific group of girlfriends who want nothing more than to help her through this difficult time. Girlfriends are a beautiful thing. I always appreciated mine but the past 11 days has shown me how much more important it is to make sure you have a group of women in your life to enjoy in addition to your husband and kids. I know a lot of women who let their female relationships fall by the wayside once they get married and have kids because it’s not always easy to keep that connection going. Does that sound like you? It does? Well, change that scenarion. Take it from me… its worth it. A girl needs her girls. In more ways than any of you can imagine.

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