Happy Second Birthday from Daddy

Now you are two.
The number says you are an Engine.
Legs and arms and fingers are pistons moving.
The number says you have a length of days experience.
Enough that you know what you want.
Enough that you will tell us. All of us. When and how and what you want.
The number says that sometimes you take a nap,
And sometimes the nap takes you.
But
It doesn't say that you would tell me how you feel a few weeks ago.
And why you feel that way.
I wasn't expecting that.
Nor how important it would be for me to tell you about your Day before you go to bed.
Or how much I enjoy watching you through the window at school before you know we're there.
Or watching your mother hold you.
Thank you, Little Girl.

Deforestation

First haircut: 11:00 October 4, 2008.
Gayle did the honors, under heavy protest from the very tired subject.
Olivia requested that she be described here as The Victim.
Maybe next time she can use the chair?

Olivia and I had The Talk this weekend

About where Cookies come from.
Not the Birds and the Bees, but the Butter and the Sugars.
I believe she took my meaning.
And she now has a deeper understanding of what motivates
The Cookie Monster.

Happy Birthday Kathy

Now let us sport us while we may,

And now, like amorous birds of prey,

Rather at once our time devour

Than languish in his slow-chapt power.

- Andrew Marvell

Nana

We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths;
In feelings, not in figures on a dial.
We should count time by heart-throbs. He most lives
Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best.
- Philip James Bailey

The Nice Thing About Funerals . . .

is that lots of family get together again.
We remember all the fun we had with Grandpa,
and there are even more little people around
to learn
to remember
the fun that we all still have together.

Oma and Opa

The kid seems to enjoy her grandparents. And they seem to enjoy her too.