socks?
(hannah and me part fifteen)


yesterday, the birmingham based part of sarah's family and i traveled to cartersville, georgia to meet up with that group plus sarah's uncle richard, who was in visiting from colorado. it was a nice day and visit for all of them and i was glad to be there as well. i still got in plenty of football watching (have i ever brought this up? i think i would like to have michael vick's baby.) i also got some up close and personal time with my niece, emma catherine, which was very fun. it's hard to believe hannah was ever that small. not so hard to believe that hannah could and can be that ornery, although given how tired the baby, baby girl was, she really handled her part of the day well. all in all, as the meat or peanut butter and jelly to the sandwich that is my current three day weekend, it was a good day.

the highlight of the day came on the way home. not because the day had drawn to a close necessarily, but because of the events that were to unfold after a stop at mcdonald's. hannah was tired, but she was also hungry, so we decided to stop for some chicken, fries and sauce before we got out of town. as part of the pitch to hannah, we also reminded her that a toy would be in order for any big girl that could finish her chicken mcnuggets kid's meal. skeptical as i always am when hannah has anything offered to her along with fries that the other thing will be eaten, hannah proved me wrong and mowed through her chicken like she hadn't eaten in days. she also took care of some fries and sucked down some hi-c, all of this in order to get to what she had been promised before arriving at the little known fast food establishment.

what she didn't know was that i already knew her reward, and her reward sucked worse than getting a chip stuck in your permanent retainer. what was the "girl toy" she was so lucky to have included in her bag? a pair of socks......i am not kidding. a god-forsaken (probably not literally) pair of socks. my eyes almost welled up with sadness and fear. she had been so good all day. handled being tired. handled pooping in her panties. been helpful with emma. handled being hungry. and this is her thank you??? no fucking way, dude. she's going to have a come-apart and i am going to be right behind her.

"i want my toy."

oh, god. here it comes. the come-apart. joseph hands her her "toy" and she begins unwrapping them. what? no crying? no fussing? no come-apart? but, why? because i can't remember if it was marie or joseph that said it, but one said something about her new puppets. and then someone else mentioned (maybe even hannah) something about her gloves. that her new gloves made her look like the princesses she's been watching and adoring in her disney movies. and she was utterly content. more than content. happy. and so were we. sarah, marie, joseph and i all laughed (the good, gutteral, feel-good laugh) at the situation playing out so much better than we had prepared ourselves for. what a bright and creative little girl. how nice it must be to be grounded in imagination and instead of feeling disappointed at the sight of socks, you see beautiful elbow length gloves that would match your wonderful dress you will wear to the ball in your dreams.

grounded in imagination. what a wonderful lesson. thank you, hannah, for making my day. for the laugh. for wanting to comfort your tired tears when we got home. i love you so much. i'll pick you up soon.