Picture Picture

My 4-year old loves to visit grandma Rose and Poppa. She gets so excited when it's her turn for an overnight, and equally distraught when it's someone else's.

She always has fun, and talks about her visit for a few days afterwards.

But today, she told me that last time she was there, a few weeks ago, she saw photographs of all of her brothers and sisters, and it made her miss everyone.

"I just couldn't look at the pictures, because it made me sad to look at them, so I decided not to look at them so I could be happy and have a good time."

This made me smile, tear up, and wonder all at the same time. I can just picture her getting a little teary herself, and then setting the pictures aside and bouncing back into her "happy place." This is one of the photos that made her wistful:



This is all the more remarkable because she takes a fair amount of abuse from all four of them, probably more so than anyone else in the family; it seems to roll off her back most of the time, and she enjoys giving as good as she gets. And apparently, she feels the love anyway. Amazing.

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