“I’ll never forget this day. The power went out; we had like one candle,” Syd starts.
“There were two,” Hero adds. “The other one was in the bathroom.”
“Oh, right,” Syd grins. “I wanted Dad to read me that silly crocodile booksobad.”
“Yeah, you cried till he gave in, and then Mom sat there with the candle in his face and almost burned him.”
“I did not!”
Her dad chuckles.
“I made him read it three times, and then the wax dropped onto the pages.”
“And when you ripped apart the pages that were stuck together the next day—” her mom says.
“Hero laughed at me.”
“So you picked two books off his bookshelf and tore the pages out.”
Syd giggles. “Good thing he didn’t fall in love with books until a little later in life.”
“Good thing” Hero nudges her back. “I’d be horrified now.”
One memory turns into two and then three and on and on.
I sit back and listen.
My family, they love each other, but this is a whole different level.
It’s mesmerizing.
When dinner is over and Syd can’t stop yawning, we say goodbye and load into my truck to head home. Sydney rests her head against the door and closes her eyes.
Nights like tonight wouldn’t happen for us in Manhattan. Sure, my family is there, but they don’t see each other weekly, and they sure as hell don’t sit around laughing and sharing memories of growing up.
If I had to pick between my kids seeing how good success feels versus making family memories . . . well, it’s a no brainer.
Sydney
I can’t be the first woman to be in tears while she walks around the store scanning items for her baby registry, can I?
I scan a three pack of blankets with rainbows on them and wipe away the tears.
“Oh, I like those,” Mark says, coming up behind me and rubbing my back. “Are you doing okay?”
“How can these tiny, tiny socks make me cry?” I say, and more tears fall.
“It’s okay to cry. This is definitely an eye-opener for me too.” He takes a onesie off the rack and holds it up. “How in the heck does this fit a living human?”
I take the yellow outfit from him and run my fingers over the silver letters that read So Lovedand smile. “I don’t know, but we should get this.”
“I’ll scan it.”
“No, I mean buy it. Today. Now.”
“Yeah? Do you just want to buy everything now?”
“No, just this one.”
