Stephanie Says.. Take a walk inside my head

It happened again this weekend.  There she was, my no longer ringleted mini me, sitting in my lap and reading a book about dinosaurs.  And once again I was transported someplace outside of myself.  Just like I was two years ago.

See, every year, my Aunt Eva takes on the Herculean task of organizing an extended family reunion.  There were five kids in my Poppaw’s family, each with numerous children and grandchildren of their own.  Somehow Aunt Eva wrangles us into a cabin with games, food, prayers and of course the family sing along.  Two years ago, we were in a dorm style building with each nuclear family inhabiting a bed/bathroom and the whole messy lot of us sharing the kitchen and living quarters.  I’m the oldest of my branch of grandchildren, but not by much.  My cousin Michelle was born not even half a year after me and there are movies of us squabbling over toys, photos of us in our flower girl dresses and memories of us as lanky teenagers singing songs from “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolored Dreamcoat”.  Michelle has a little girl of her own now, Ava of the pretty dresses.  Ava was three that year and left in the common room while her mother was giving Kyle a bath. She didn’t really know me from the man in the moon, but she ended up in my lap.  There she was, a sleepy three year old, smelling of shampoo and bath soap, sitting quietly while my mother recorded my father’s kin talking about the relatives who had gone before.  She probably doesn’t remember me.  She wouldn’t be able to recall my name, but for me, it was a time when my heart grew full and for just a moment that child, all wet hair and sleepy eyes, was the most important thing in the world.

It happened again last weekend.  Abigail is five now.  We’ve seen her grow from a bald, screaming baby to a curly headed little ball of energy to the intellegent little gap toothed girl that she is today.  The trip was our introduction to Samuel, who is cute and funny and everything you would expect a wide eyed baby boy to be, but it became about my time with Abigail.  Abigail can now read.  Mine O Saurus presented no problems for her except for the word “Pteranodon”.  “The `p'” she informed me knowledgeably, “is silent”.  Abigail has gotten a haircut and looks ever  more like the “big girl” that she is growing into.  Abigail likes to instruct, especially when faced with an Aunt Stephanie who can’t dance…at all.  And Abigail lost her first tooth, with another one due to wiggle out any time now.

 

 

Catherine is sweet.  She is smart and funny and right behind her big sister in everything from Play Dough animals to taking pictures with my digital camera.  Elisabeth is growing from a baby to a little girl every time we see her.  She even climbed up in Kenny’s lap over lunch only to climb down again once she was perched on his knee.  She likes to explore her independence and is even talking some, though she is still very cuddly as I discovered when Clay let me get her up from a nap.  And Samuel?  Well, Samuel is a blue eyed, blonde haired bundle of joy.  He cried when his costume cowboy hat was put on him and seemed to be happier when it was taken off.  He was patient with being passed from person to person (he’ll have to get used to that…Hall babies get passed around alot) and could fall asleep any time, anywhere.

   

They are beautiful.  They are smart.  They love their family and their family loves them.  But it’s Abigail, the accent ridden, book loving, picture taking bundle of joy that I had my eye on this time.  I can’t believe she is in school now.  She’s growing up so fast.  And it’s a joy to watch her learn.