{Note - I was cleaning out my draft folder of posts I have started and never finished and found this. I wish I would have published this one when it was written. This was about a year and a half ago, when I was still in school, still living in my beloved Portland, and getting ready to marry Shoes. What a sweet time that was.}
i gave four miniature neighbors ....
and two adult-sized neighbors.
in one house. there are more, of course, elsewhere, but i don't know them.
two of the four minis are Sophie (5) and Annabelle (3).
the two others are dog #1 and dog#2.
Sophie has told me the dogs' names several times, but i never remember. they're corgies. or terriers. or something. i'm not sure. they're small and bark-y and usually muddy and i love them.
but this is about Sophie and Annabelle, who race into the backyard to tell me hello and ask me to get the ball they kicked over the fence and ask me where i'm going and tell me about their rock collections and tell me about the afternoon's play dates. their Mom and Dad usually ask them to stop pestering me, but really, it's ok.
i need to be around kids who don't have traumatic pasts because i need to re-set my definition of normal. on a regular basis.
the other day i was in the backyard reading article after article for class and their parental units (also therapists) were asking me about school, the job market, etc. Sophie, who is too smart for her own good, had climbed up the chain link fence and was half hanging off it, listening to the conversation.
she listened about as long as she could and then she sighed impatiently, threw up her hands and said,
"you GUYS? what about the important stuff?? like ... the WEDDING! duh!"
i didn't realize children still said "duh." i haven't heard it from a kid (and i'm a kid therapist!) for a long time. also, this ranked pretty high on the cute-meter. just a little below when she and Annabelle told me they made a snowman, in a rare moment of scant Portland snow, to celebrate Father Christmas' and Jack Frost's birthday.
i'll miss these two if i move away after school.
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I remember hearing about these sweeties. <3
Also I feel you on resetting the definition of normal. I've been experiencing that a fair bit lately.