A Big Smile
Today I attended a Celebration of Life for Brooke Colvin, a beautiful 31 year old friend to my sister and our family who died unexpectedly last week while hiking up Mount Hood with her new husband. In a freak and tragic accident a piece of ice fell and hit Brooke, knocking her down the mountain and killing her. An avid outdoorswoman, the memorial was held at Camp Lotus along the American River where she guided. The day was glorious with the sun warming our bodies as we listened to broken-hearted people celebrate Brooke through memories. I saw so many people from my past today there to honor a friend and it reminded me of what a village of people I live among. It is days like today that are here to remind us that we must enjoy every day and appreciate those who are in our lives and love each other up. When I think of Brooke, I think of a big huge beautiful smile radiating from her face. How else would one want to be remembered really?
Yesterday I visited girl triplets who are in their fourth week in the Sutter Memorial NICU. I give them all of my girl stuff when I am done with it and it is so nice to pass my girl clothes and towels on to a fellow triplet family. The girls were in the same room, Room D, that my babies were in for most of the time in the NICU. I got to hold one of the girls and it brought me right back to a time, almost a year ago now, when I would hold my babies in that exact spot. Interestingly, there was another set of triplets in Room D. For some reason, I was always surprised that we had the only set of triplets in the hospital at the time. The smells and the nurses bustling around tending to tiny or ill babies just brought it all back to me in an instant. I started to get a little teary as I entered the Special Care Nursery and bellied up to the sink to wash my hands before entering. What a special time in my life to have my babies there and know they were safe and growing and getting stronger each day. I was happy to have been able to go down and hold one of those triplet baby girls. My babies will never be so unbelievably tiny again.
I cherish every day I have with my kids and after today especially, I am happy to be able to do that. Today I watched Violet play the Kazoo, Elsa and Preston staring and smiling at each other from their booster seats for what seemed like a really long time, Violet cry when Elsa took the toy she was playing with, Ava telling us what 2 + 2 equals and doing a pretty good job counting to 100, Elsa get her fingers run over by a train and cry the saddest cry, Preston saying "mama, mama," over and over, Violet rip my earring out of my ear, and Ava engaged in a conversation about complimenting people. While I spend so much time inside my house taking care of four little monkeys, my world is so big watching these kids learn and grow each day into happy people who I hope will have a zest for life and walk around with a big smile on their faces just as Brooke did.
Until next time, the mothership is signing off.
Yesterday I visited girl triplets who are in their fourth week in the Sutter Memorial NICU. I give them all of my girl stuff when I am done with it and it is so nice to pass my girl clothes and towels on to a fellow triplet family. The girls were in the same room, Room D, that my babies were in for most of the time in the NICU. I got to hold one of the girls and it brought me right back to a time, almost a year ago now, when I would hold my babies in that exact spot. Interestingly, there was another set of triplets in Room D. For some reason, I was always surprised that we had the only set of triplets in the hospital at the time. The smells and the nurses bustling around tending to tiny or ill babies just brought it all back to me in an instant. I started to get a little teary as I entered the Special Care Nursery and bellied up to the sink to wash my hands before entering. What a special time in my life to have my babies there and know they were safe and growing and getting stronger each day. I was happy to have been able to go down and hold one of those triplet baby girls. My babies will never be so unbelievably tiny again.
I cherish every day I have with my kids and after today especially, I am happy to be able to do that. Today I watched Violet play the Kazoo, Elsa and Preston staring and smiling at each other from their booster seats for what seemed like a really long time, Violet cry when Elsa took the toy she was playing with, Ava telling us what 2 + 2 equals and doing a pretty good job counting to 100, Elsa get her fingers run over by a train and cry the saddest cry, Preston saying "mama, mama," over and over, Violet rip my earring out of my ear, and Ava engaged in a conversation about complimenting people. While I spend so much time inside my house taking care of four little monkeys, my world is so big watching these kids learn and grow each day into happy people who I hope will have a zest for life and walk around with a big smile on their faces just as Brooke did.
Until next time, the mothership is signing off.
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