I love you always and forever.
I am going to miss you so much that I'm probably going to cry sometimes.
When I see you with your mommy or daddy, I'm going to threaten to take you home with me and keep you forever. (This offer becomes null and void upon Venice entering the teen years... just so you know. At that time, I will coach her from behind the scenes on how to be a Holy Terror. Word.)
I take full credit for teaching Venice that peanut butter tastes better when it's eaten out of a bowl than it does on bread, and that it's a convenient dip for graham crackers, cookies, cheezits, goldfish crackers, etc. Also? I accept full responsibility for her belief that hot cocoa and chocolate pudding is a perfectly reasonable request for lunch. I totally bought her love with chocolate, sips of diet Pepsi and Coke Zero, and bags and bags of M & Ms and Doritos. She was easy and I was ruthless.
I have no shame.
I bought Charlie's love with excessive hugs, kisses, apples, bananas and cookies, giving him his "nite-nite" even when I probably shouldn't have, picking him up and loving him to pieces even when he was being a monster, tickling him senseless just to see that big, open-mouthed smile on his face, doing his hair almost every morning and telling him how pretty he is, then rewarding him for sitting still while I put his hair in an up-do by letting him play with my make-up brushes. (Hey... it worked and he loved it. He would brush his cheeks, brush MY cheeks, brush the dogs cheeks... What? Brennan did it and HE turned out okay...)
I turned him into a couch potato because he got too big to wander around with and it was easier to snuggle with him on the couch. And snuggling with Charlie? Is one of the best things in the world. I love his chubby little legs, his chubby little body, his chubby little cheeks and his silly, wild and crazy curls. Most of all, I just really love HIM.
Kegan's love could not be bought... but I made a supreme effort. And on those rare and wonderful moments that he decided to love me, it was worth every second of the other days that he didn't. Yesterday he honored me by sitting on my lap, wrapping his arms around my neck and playing with my hair. Until you've been blessed with random, spontaneous Kegan love, you can't possibly imagine how special it is. I remember each of those occasions as if it were Christmas.
I'm going to have severe withdrawels for a while... I lived for my fat baby hugs every morning, cuddling on the couch with Venice after preschool, coloring with both of them, making faces with them, teaching them obnoxious habits and how to make rude noises. I don't know if I'll survive without Ni Hao Kai Lan, Dora, The Wiggles, Max and Ruby, etc.
I loved getting Kegan off the bus and seeing the recognition on his face and knowing that he was happy to see me. I loved dancing with him to the Wiggles, doing the Hot Potato and the Cold Spaghetti with him, feeding him poptarts and corndogs until they were coming out of his ears and tickling his feet just to hear him laugh.
Needless to say, as with my own precious babies, you will never be replaced. You have taken up permanent residence in my heart and I will always treasure the time that I was priviledged to be The Nanny.
Kegan, Venice and Charlie... thank you for being "mine" 5 days a week for 2 years.
Zach and Wendy... thank you for trusting me with your children and for allowing me to spoil them and love them. Thank you for letting me share those special moments in their lives.
//heart
Love,
Dan
No comments:
Post a Comment