Love Thursday

Good golly. Enough doom and gloom. I've even depressed the dog, I think, who is watching me eat celery and peanut butter and is not even begging. Seriously, she couldn't be less interested.

So, instead of bringing everyone around me down, I've decided to join the beautiful thing that is Love Thursday.

I only just this summer started reading Chookooloonks with regularity. I'm glad I did. Karen's stunning photograph's and light-heartedness do this worrying heart good. Today she wrote a post that said: What is for you cannot un-for you. At first I had to shake my head and say, "Wahhh?" But then I read it again and understood. The election on November 7th may give us permission to live life the way we've been living it, or it may requre a lifestyle overhaul. Either way, we'll be ok.

..........

The idea behind Love Thursday is to post a picture that describes the word love to you. If you've been around here long enough, you'd predict I was going to show a picture of my girls -- and you'd be right.

Though I certainly could choose to write about how much I love them on my first Love Thursday, instead I'm going to write about how much they love each other.

Sass was so excited to have a baby sister, that when she first arrived in the hospital room that day, she could not stop touching Party Girl. Look at her little cheeks! she exclaimed over and over again. Look at her fingers! Look at her knees! I think she went through every body part. Then she sang "I love you, you love me" to her and we all melted into happy, squishy little puddles on the floor.

Coming home was a different story, of course. Suddenly this new baby had to be nursed and held and she shrieked and Mama and Daddy were sleep-deprived. We've had our moments over the last year and a half, but lately? I see a bond forming. A bond I've hoped for, a bond I hope will last until they're 100 years old.

I remember the first time I saw them really interact as sisters. Party Girl was maybe 4 months or so old. Every afternoon we all piled onto Sass's bed to nap. I usually laid between them, soothing one and then the other, but this day we had somehow ended up with PG in the middle. While they laid there quietly, Sass took PG's hand and PG turned up on her side, looked at her sis, and laughed out loud. Sass giggled back and for that instant it was just the two of them. I loved seeing that first moment, the day they realized that they could have a relationship independent of anyone else.

Sass watches out for Party Girl already, steering her away from the staircase, pulling things away from her she shouldn't have. She's protective of her in group settings as well (and maybe just a teensy bit possessive.) Every morning when I get Party Girl out of her crib, she whispers Sassafrass... She knows she's still sleeping, so she has to whisper, but being with her big sis is the first thing on her mind. They hug and cuddle. PG plants big kisses on Sass's cheek and Sass tells her every day You're the cutest baby in the world.

We still have our moments, but it's true love.