Growing Pains

Dear Sonia,

Hi girl! Your mom had a hard couple of days this week. Your Uncle S and other Auntie K were there to visit you and meet you last weekend and then when they left, your mom got really sad.

Because your mom and I have both lived far away from home a bunch of times, we really know how this feels. It's horrible. You see people you love, and then they leave, and it's just this weird empty feeling. It's usually only when people visit you. When you visit, there's always the happiness of returning to your own home and your own bed and your own everything that somehow makes the sadness of leaving them bearable. When I was only 10 or 12, and your Great Auntie P would leave to go back to New York after a visit, I would have this icky feeling in my tummy that I couldn't explain to your Nana. Come to find out, this is what it was!

So, even though your mom has had this feeling before and knows how it feels, it still is hard when it happens. She'll be fine, of course, and your family is really great there in Texas. Your daddy, and your mom, and your grandparents. You're a lucky girl to have so many people who love you.

I'm coming to see you in one more week! One more!

Oh yeah! I just found out from your mom that you do the same twisty thing with your hair that I do! (Now, my dear niece, this is in fact a curse. Perhaps YOU won't be 35 and still doing it -- in the middle of meetings at work no less -- but maybe you will. We'll talk. Oh, and I'll teach you to tie knots in it with one hand, that's the best part!) I started doing it when I was tiny in my crib, before I even had hair. Just a little twisty motion with my finger. That's what you do. But since you have as much hair as a two-year-old already, you apparently sometimes get caught up in it and grab it and pull, and then you cry because you hurt yourself! Careful!

Anyway, I've included a photo of you with Uncle S. He digs you. He sent me a text while he was visiting you that said "U will love her." He has clearly understated how I am going to feel about you, because I already love you and I haven't even met you. Imagine what will happen when I hold you? Imagine!

Love,

Auntie K