Moments of lightness have been few and far between lately, but we've been grateful for every one. It has obviously been a long time since I blogged, but I've had a few requests to begin again. I doubt the future posts will be as exciting as the overseas ones, but I will do my best to entertain.
Over the Thanksgiving holidays, Amelia, age 7, was distraught to be leaving both her best friend and her new puppy. It's hard to say which goodbye was more dramatic -- and traumatic. As soon as we arrived at the airport, Amelia was begging me to hand over my iPhone so she could e-mail Tori. I'm having a hard time accepting the words "text" and "iPhone" and "e-mail" come out of my children's mouths, but I handed the phone over, and Amelia composed her note, sending it to Tori's father's account (thankfully, none of these pre-tweens have established their own e-mail accounts ... yet). Amelia spent the rest of the holiday vacation (seven days, for those interested) refreshing my e-mail, usually hourly, with huge sighs and sulking when she found no return message.
This went on all day, every day. Did I mention vacation was seven days long?
I tried to assure Amelia that this was not a personal affront. They were in Disney, I told her, and they were probably far too busy meeting princesses to send e-mails.
The sighs grew louder, the silence from Tori too much to bear. Coupled with crying herself to sleep each night over Lucky's perceived abuse (or, sometimes, abduction) at the kennel proved too much to bear. She needed an outlet. And it came in the form of a letter.
It was written with all the seriousness a 7-year-old can muster, with the linguistic stylings of iCarly or Victorious thrown in for good measure. I couldn't help but laugh at some parts, be taken aback at others. But I loved how well she expressed herself. Luckily, she forgot about the letter, and I spirited it away. It will find a happy home in the files of other old letters from 7-year-olds, such as my letter to my second-grade teacher saying that I couldn't participate in gym because I had laryngitis (a fantastic word for me to try to spell at that age). I'm sure it will give you all a giggle, as it did us, and bring some light to a dreary day.
