Happy Anniversary to us (July 2)
It’s a running joke in the house that Lily will one day be a corporate CEO or Attorney or Mob boss or some such job that will require a deeply analytical mind and a willingness to cut a bitch. And Nora will have some kind of empath related job, something like a therapist, teacher, nurse, or if you believe her, an ice cream lady
I try hard not to put my assumptions on who they are and what they will become onto my kids. One of my favorite things to attempt as a parent is to let my kids chart their own path without me offering too much influence — with the one notable exception of music. My kids will listen to country music over my dead damn body.
This morning was a great example of what totally different people our children are. It was 6:30 in the morning and Megan was working out while I was laying in bed, doomscrolling Threads, reading about the never ending saga of our slow motion government collapse. While I was doing this, I could hear the faint sound of papers floating around. I thought it was my mind playing tricks on me at first, but then Nora quietly emerged from the around the corner. We have a hard and fast rule that the girls can’t come in until 7am, a rule they know not to mess with. Nora had this sweet grin on her face so I let her in. She was holding a piece of paper in her hand and said she had been trying to throw it into the bedroom, presumably because she was trying to not violate the sacred morning rule.
The piece of paper ended up being a homemade “Happy Anniversary” card from her. “This is a great day to get married” it said in her adorable 1st grade spelling. What I love about this is we never asked her for a card, told her to make us a card, or really even made a big deal out of the fact that today is our 10th wedding anniversary. Nora just thought to make us a sweet card without any prodding or encouragement from us.
Lily wished us a happy anniversary too which was sweet. But something about one of your kids making you a card without you asking them to is real damn special.
