I’m curious about family sayings or traditions.
Between my daughter and I we do this thing where, when we say goodnight, I say this:
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“I love you more than the sun, the moon, the stars, everything, infinity and beyond.”
It’s been our ritual for most of her young life. And she’s about to turn 12. Ahem.
Hang on.
Something in my eye. Allergies. I don’t know. Maybe glaucoma. Not sure.
Ok.
And her reply has always been the same:
“I love you more.”
And then we go through this whole protracted game of trying to outdo each other.
“Well, I love you more than all the grains of sand.”
“Oh yeah? I love you more than all the stars in the universe.”
“Well, um…I love you more than the atoms and molecules…”
And so on.
Finally we say good night and I feel relieved that, if not all is right with the world, it’s at least a little better. For us.
Recently I was talking to a friend and colleague about that very specific thing you go through as a parent whereby you put the infant/baby to bed for the night and then before you go to bed you go in and hover over the crib to make sure your child is still breathing. That the swaddle is still firm. That she hasn’t gotten her head caught in the crib prison bars. I did this nightly for at least two years and still woke up praying she would be there in the morning. Alive.
I can’t remember what I had for lunch yesterday but I can still feel that anxiety of making sure my daughter was safely tucked in. Breathing. For me that was a decade ago. And I feel it still.
The days are long but the years are short.
Facebook has this thing where they hit you out of the blue with, remember this random day in 2013? And it’s my daughter on video and she’s two years old. Ok, thanks, Facebook. Thanks for ripping my heart out and stomping on it. Really? I can’t be eating a Wendy’s #6 combo and suddenly in the middle of my day I’m sobbing and people are like, why is Jason Carr crying in Wendy’s?
Anyway.
What are your family connections, sayings or traditions? I’ll be reading the comments below.
Also, I need some Visine.
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