I love you when you say with great clarity, “Aunt Jessica? … (yes, honey?) … I miss you.”
I love you when you get chocolate on your hair from it falling in your ice cream bowl and you don’t even care.
I love you when you wake me in the morning, tell me it’s cloudy outside and that I should sleep a bit longer.
I love you when you laugh loud enough for the neighboring states to hear.
I love you when you don’t know how little you still are.
I love you when you treat others with no ounce of judgment. If they’ll listen, they’re a real friend.
I love you when you’re not afraid to get a little dirty … even in your brand new skirt.
I love you when you live every waking moment with the utmost passion.
I love you when you play with me.
I love you when you make the petty things that crowd my brain fade away just by entering the room.
I love you when I make you mad and you pout with utmost conviction.
I love you when you forget it all by one small tickle.
I love you when you create art … on paper, with your words, in your movements.
I love you when you let me chase you around with a camera to my eye.
I love you when you are mischievous.
I love you when you make a noise from your backside and then say, “Uh, oh. There’s a moose in the room.”
I love you when you hear the train in the distance and stop everything to relish in the magic of it.
I love you when you have dirt smeered across your face, but won’t dare share a bit of food with another for fear of the germs.
I love you when you remind me I live in Cincinnati, you in California, Nana in Tennessee and Great Grandmother in Charlotte.
I love you when you are adventurous … even to the point of flying across the country with just your Papaw in tow, leaving the comforts of home all behind.
I love you when you make the people around you feel special…which is any and everyone with a beating heart.
I love you when you remind me why I long for a soul just like you to call my own.
I love you when you make that void not hurt so much when you’re around.
I love you when … forever, for always, I love you when.
+++
Dad had to leave town so we medicated ourselves with too much wine. Just us girls… not the kids, of course. ; ) We watched The Biggest Loser in record time: 4 hours. There were just too many stories to be told, laughs to be had. Thank you, Mr. Whoever, for DVR. It’s raining outside and although I loved hearing it pitter and patter it’s a bit stuffy in this room so I had to turn on the fan which drowned it out. Then, I decided it needed to be drowned out by Amy Seeley. I’m super tired. I couldn’t sleep last night – too much swirling in my head and I don’t think REM was achieved until sometime past 3. Luckily, I had a good reason to rise. I had breakfast with a bride whose wedding I have been chosen to photograph. She reminds me again and again why I am so very grateful for my job. I never want to take one day of it for granted. Thank you, Babe, for letting me have a job that doesn’t donate too much to our bank account. Thank you, Jess, for making me love my job. I so look forward to seeing you in your dress of white. Only 2 more months!! 
Sleep well, World…
