the honest truth

Maddie:  Did you ever have strep throat, a fever and a headache all at the same time Grammy?
Me: Yes I did Maddie, when I was a little girl like you.
Maddie: Well I wanted to be sick so I could stay home from school, but when I got sick I felt so bad I wished I hadn't wished to be sick.
Me: Why did you want to stay home from school Maddie?  Don't you like school?
Maddie: Well yes I do, if all I had to do was recess and PE.
Me: Just recess and PE Maddie?  You don't like anything else?
Maddie: Well, yes, I like Art.  And Music.
Me: You are definitely my girl, Mad.

This from the child who makes top grades and reads at about a fifth grade level in the second grade.

Wondering if there are enough recesses to get her through high school at this point.

A child can speak the truth with blunt honesty and get away with it.
1. Because it is coming from a child.
2. Because if I said it, people would wonder why I was still in grade school.


...life is good. ~cath
find me @jonesbabie on Twitter

her grammy's girl

Two photos say it all...Maddie came to the house today and wouldn't leave until I got home from work and she got to see me.  She met me at the car and had to beat the dogs off to get to me for a hug.  I got these shots while she was going through some old clothes, and a couple tacky wigs that Wretch brought to be taken to Goodwill...although why anyone but Maddie would want those wigs is beyond me...

Ahh...she is my heart...and such a clown...

brocade angel wings

maddie channeling katie perry 

...life is so very sweet. ~cath
find me @jonesbabie on Twitter

letter from maddie

Maddie is leaving

memories of these two weeks

my heart breaks a bit

life is good. ~cath

@jonesbabie on Twitter

maddie in the dryer

I've been in a reflective mood the past few days.  Looking through my photographs, I've seen some that set off words in my head.  Each moment of my life takes my grandchildren one step closer to adulthood.  Life passes so very quickly.  I want to treasure and capture each moment, and stop life, so I can fully savor it.  The reality is an impossibility, so photo haiku helps me to capture those moments forever.

I have come to believe that haiku and photographs were meant for each other.  My photographs are minutes of my life, captured in images, and the haiku I add to some of them are the emotions I feel as I look at that photograph.  This photo is one I ran across days ago.  Every time I looked at it, I remembered the day Maddie was helping me look for some article of clothing in my dryer.  She was about 3 at the time, which is a world of difference from the 6 year old she is today.  She was just beginning to have her own thoughts, and express them in her own unique way.  I look at this photo and can hear her singsong little girl voice talking to me as she dove head first into my dryer.

It's a day I'll  never have again.  Except in my head, and my heart, when I look at this photo.  I hope you all will remember some of your own special moments as you read these words.

 


~cath xo
Twitter @jonesbabie

maddie's earrings

                                                               

I have many earrings.  My ears have been pierced since I was 13.  Many of my earrings were gifts from family and friends, and others I have accumulated over the years.

I think about the star sapphire earrings from Thailand that my dad gave me when I graduated from 8th grade into high school, and how the light when you move them makes a reflection on the stones that looks like a star.  How beautiful I thought those earrings were.  They were my first earrings that were more than just costume jewelry.  Every time I look at them I think of dad.

There are the earrings that Stevie Wonder gave me when we were dating.  Tiger eyes with a scarab beetle carved on them.  The jade earrings given to me by my kids years ago; the earrings given to me by my girlfriend Barb when we were struggling through nursing school that would be small enough to look professional when we went to work as real nurses.  The earrings I picked up on my travels, some Zuni turquoise from New Mexico, more turquoise and silver from Calistoga, California, and the bone, ivory, and beaded earrings I collected in Alaska while I worked as a pediatrics nurse in the tundra.

All my earrings have meaning.  But they aren't really mine.  They belong to Maddie.  I didn't plan it that way.  It just happened.  An epiphany. 
                                                                             

When she was just a few months old, I was holding Maddie in my arms when she noticed I had on earrings.  I thought she would reach up and try to yank them out like most babies when they see bright, shiny dangling earrings.  But she didn't.  She reached up and carefully touched one with her forefinger and thumb.  No yank on my ear, just a gentle touch.  I looked at her and could see the curiosity shining in her eyes.  And that was when I knew my earrings were no longer mine.  They were Maddie's.  As I whispered that in her ear, she smiled as though she understood me.  And since that moment, every time she notices my earrings, I tell her that they are hers.  And she smiles.