Saturday, April 9, 2011

Lost and found

Katie hugs Cooper before he leaves for a weekend of camping.

Cooper is camping, which means Katie and I have lots of uninterrupted time together.

She always cries for the first three or four minutes of their separation. Then we find lots to keep us busy and to fill the silence created by Cooper's absence. This weekend has included dinner with the Smiths, a day at the Dallas Arboretum with the Papps and dinner with the Spears family.

Katie prepared breakfast in bed for me -- bread with peanut butter and mini chocolate chips and a side of cheddar bunnies. 

In between, we've been reading, watching Tangled and talking. There's always lots of talking with Katie.

I like to keep track of her most quotable quotes, as my Facebook and Twitter friends can tell you. (When Steve was alive, we would email or text each other Katie-isms. I suppose that status updates are my substitute for being able to tell Steve.)

When Cooper isn't here to share airwave time, I have trouble keeping up with her quotable quotes. I often can't keep up with her train of thought. In Granny Weatherall fashion, she wanders from one topic to another and back again.

One of her most frequent subjects is her Daddy. While we ate a picnic lunch on the Arboretum's amphitheater grounds, she said the day could only be better with Daddy there. She said that he would have loved the beautiful flowers (so true). At dinner tonight, she imagined Daddy sitting with us.

Today she also told me about a writing assignment from school. She was asked to write about a time she lost something.

"So, I wrote about how I lost Daddy. And how I'll find him again one day in heaven."

1 comment:

Bruny Papp said...

Dear Tyra,
We had a great time with you yesterday. It was fun to see the girls have a great time.
It is amazing to hear how Katie includes her Daddy in her every day life. It is a joy to see how she continues to create happy memories of Steve. She is a gem.
Hope you both had a great evening. Very thoughtful of Katie to serve you breakfast in bed! Lots of hugs....Bruny & Erica Michelle.