Kids Will Steal Your Heart

Great nephew Griffin is about to have a birthday. I can't decide if he'll be 4 years old or 22 but his birth certificate says he'll be 6...
Sometimes he acts so mature, like when he comforted ME when I couldn't find an engineer's striped cap (for ME) when we went to see Thomas the Train. He kept patting my elbow as we were walking to the car saying "I'm really sorry, Pegger....maybe we can find your cap somewhere else...it's going to be ok..want some ice cream?"

Yesterday I asked him if he would take care of me when he earned a "million, million, million dollars plus 2" (his words)...he replied with adult frankness, "No, but I think Mommy will"...he finally relented when I pursued the subject and fetched his tiny savings bank pig. He opened it up and gave me 10 cents that I was "TO USE ONLY FOR CHARITY".

Griffin's Mom, Annie was telling me about the day he was home from school sick. He asked her if he dialed the same phone number upstairs to call me as he did from the downstairs phone. He told her he wanted to tell me he loved me. When he called me, he said, "Pegger, I uh, just called to uh...er...I was wondering...do you want to take me to the putt-putt course today?" As I explained that it might be better to go another time since he was sick and it was 42 degrees out he interrupted by blurting out, "I love you"...and that's the only reason I called...well, that and the putt-putt thing..bye."

The other night we had a crew of friends of Griffin's parents over to play ping pong and other games in the lower level. I figured that Grif was bored because there were no kids his age to play with him. He asked for some white paper and a pen and he busied himself drawing and writing. Later, as everyone was getting ready to leave, Grif said I had something on my back. Sure enough, there was a paper that he had secretly taped on me. I quickly theorized that I would find the words "KICK ME" on it like I used to do as a practical joke (heck, I did it just last week to the mailman!)...

no..there were just a variety of sizes of the letter O scribbled all over this 8 1/2 x 11 sheet.
I said "Grif..those are great O's!"
He said, "You're silly..those are HUGS!"

I went to bed that night cradling my "hugs".