PORTER
- That you call your little sister "Missy" in a sing-song tone and peek over the top of her crib to rub her hair every morning. (In later years, I'll remind you of this and you'll sneer. Oh, please don't grow up.)
- When coaching you on sharing as we drove to your friend's house, you said, "But Mom, what if fighting is just who I am?"
- That you say "amn't" instead of "aren't" or "not".
- I put you in time out, hovering over you with my best angry look (you tend to try to sneak out as soon as we turn our backs), and you first said, sweetly, "Talk to me, Mommy." When that didn't work, you crooned, "Please stop blinking at me and say something." How can I stay mad at that?
- That you wake me up in the morning by, literally, creeping into my bedroom and tapping me softly on the nose.
NORA
- That even at 6 months old, your babbling is distinctly feminine.
- That you purr like a cat when you're especially content.
- That you sleep in the exact same side-lying with legs splayed position that I sleep in.
- That your tip-toed, finger-tipped push-ups will turn into crawling before we know it. (This also makes me a little sad; where have the past 7 months gone?)
ANDY
- That you came back to us after a week in Denver that was filled with soccer, friends, undisturbed sleep, and no dishes or laundry.
- That you try to get me to like video games by refusing to play your newest game without me, but then you heckle me relentlessly the entire time I'm holding the paddle.
- That you have not once told me to stop complaining even though we are now more than two weeks out from my surgery.
- That you seem to be the only person in our house who has not heard Nora say "da da."
- That between our crazy-but-cute kids, the ten different soccer teams, two houses in two years, two surgeries, backyard landscaping and a demanding wife, you somehow managed to finish round one of your grad program...with a 4.0!
ME
- That I somehow thought foot surgery was not a big deal.
- That I surprised my husband and our friends by knowing the lyrics to handfuls of random country songs during our card game music challenge extraordinaire (Thanks to Melinda and Mandy for years of exposure in middle and high school).
- That after all my hard work, I have yet to see anything besides a marshmallow-sized bell pepper come out of my garden. My grandpa had a green thumb, my grandma has a green thumb, and my mom has got more fruits and veggies than she knows what to do with. What happened to me?
