A Place to Write

Aspen has been waiting a very long time for her birthday. That’s a tough thing for a child who is still too young to understand the concept of time. We finally got the countdown to make sense when we started counting “sleeps” instead of days. On her birthday we went and got our traditional birthday donuts.  Aspen spent time with Barb who let Brittany take her out. She came home with two new necklaces, 9 headbands, and a new outfit. She had three hotdogs for lunch and rode the carousel at the mall four times. I made Aspen the strawberry kiwi with whipped cream frosting cupcakes she requested. She only ate the fresh fruit on top.  We went out to eat at Red Robin because Aspen loves their Mac and cheese but she was too busy having a pretend conversation on her new play phone most of the night to actually eat. Kaybree voiced Mickey on the other end of the line.  I share all of this so we will always have recorded evidence of how positively spoiled and loved this little girl is. She has eve

I didn’t keep a copy of my Christmas gift to Barb but we had a book printed. Here is the rough cut. What Aspen Knows Grandma Vance was a busy matriarch of a large family. She was always busy taking care of someone and to each person in her family she played a unique role. To some she was a confidant. To some she was a companion for sports games. To some she was a shopping partner. To many she was a baker and a maker of the most delicious foods. Some of her grandchildren saw her as the one person they were most afraid to disappoint. Some saw her as the one who always corrected their grammar. Some saw her as the enforcer of the family’s rules. But Aspen, the little one, saw her in a completely unique way. For Aspen, Grandma Vance was magic.  She was magic because she was stable.  Aspen knew every day, Monday through Friday, she would get to see Grandma Vance. She knew what Grandma Vance would be eating for breakfast (and that she might even share with her!) She knew Grandma would have al