Heroes

So many things you don't consider when your first child comes into your life. You try to imagine what it will feel like the first time she calls you Mommy, or how you will feel when she starts school, or finishes it, but you really can't imagine all the experiences your child will take you through in her life.

It was one of these pleasant surprises when we realized that Elspeth had her first hero. She began to be a perfect parrot of Ms. Chrissie the head teacher in Elspeth's toddler room. We would laugh each evening about the ways Elspeth would mimic her beloved teacher (includind a day where Chrissie gave up, let Elspeth sit at the head of the class and "read" a book to the group). While Chrissie's words were often taken out of context, we laughed constantly when we would hear them come out of our daughter's mouth ("Very sad choices Daddy, very sad."). There was absolutely NO hiding from us what happened through any given day as Elspeth would work so hard to recreate every statement out of her hero's mouth.

While Elspeth has moved on to rooms designed for bigger kids, she still loves Chrissie (and so do we!) begging us to have her over constantly. While we never thought about the people that would one day be Elspeth's hero when we brought her into the world, Jeremy and I would not re-write this chapter in our daughter's life.

We only hope Addie does half so well as her sister.