Babies four and five for Anne and I. In matching blue and white knit sweaters with those adorable toothless grins. The golden age of infancy. Offering up new reflections of their personalities, of who will they ultimately will become but still content to sit and play by themselves for brief bouts in a sun-lit corner of the house with a basket full of toys, perfectly happy in your lap, just before they realize the power of those four limbs and set out to uncover all of the endless mysteries that await in unexplored quarters of their home.
Shane and Leon are the same age difference as Maggie and Hayes. Which means six years ago we shared the same long sober holiday seasons and complained about the same summer heat waves. And now, with our expanded crews combined it can sometimes feel like a traveling circus show of screaming tantrumed toddlers, and dirty diaper explosions, and spontaneous fists flung and peed pants and non stop apologies because we are a notoriously loud and boisterous bunch. But the fact that we can sit and enjoy a beer together, trade movie recommendations or dinner recipes in the midst of all of it, in spite of the side long glances that come with taking a bunch like ours out in public, is still all the matters.
Be it evenings, afternoons, scattered hours throughout the years we will both be equally be thankful for.
