When I Grow Up... According to Lily

Lily's been very down in the dumps these past couple of days... so many mixed emotions for her with her friends moving and the possibility of our family moving as well... Yesterday, the moving truck came for the Parslow's renters... and that just made it all too real for Lily... seeing strangers move into Emily's house. So, she has needed a lot of conversation and hugs about all this... stuff. I can't imagine how hard it is for her to wrap her head around this - because it is so hard for me to wrap my head around and I'm a grown girl (well, kind of :-)...

Our list has grown long since last fall alone... Miss Shelley, Miss Tara, Miss Cheyna, Miss Jacque, Miss Kim, soon Miss Staci and Miss Stephanie (okay, so I realized I just listed all my friends and I'm supposed to be talking about Lily's and Ella's and Jack's), so, let's try this again... Cayden, Alex, Abby, Olivia, Emily, Hannah, soon Cameron, Dylan, Brandon, Michah, and Trinity - Whew! That's a whole lot of "say you laters..." And these are just the people who are leaving before us - woo-hoo Air Force. The list is even longer of all the people we'll still have to say good bye to should we make an eventual successful transition...

Lily has asked me out of the blue these past couple of days, "Mom, are you still a little sad?" (as if she's wondering if it's okay to still be sad about Emily - I think she thinks it's just supposed to "poof" and go away, which of course it doesn't.)

She wanted to go on my run with me tonight - we made a deal that she could run the first part with me, then I'd drop her off at home and finish up on my own. The little girl ran 1+ miles (without stopping!), having girl-to-girl conversation with me the whole way (I loved every minute of it...). It ranged from, "Mom, I really love this view over here" as we circled one of the roads that looks over all the homes that sit down in the hill... to "Mom, do you think Emily likes her new house? Do you think she'll forget about me?"

Later this evening, Lily was still needing some one-on-one conversations that spanned anything and everything... one of my favorites had to do with what she'll be when she grows up. "I think a soccer player, a dance teacher, a doctor, and a horseback rider... oh, and of course a momma." "Mom, do I have to pick just one thing?" My response, "no way - be lots of things, but know you'll be a busy lady..." This channeled us into a conversation about doctors - and all the different types of doctors. She told me, "I wish I could see someone's heart beat - you know, see how it works." We then started talking about hearts, and veins to which she quickly replied, "No no, not in real life, I mean, maybe just on the computer..." Somehow we got into a conversation about taking care of little kids' hearts. I told her that those doctors were called "Pediatric Cardiologists..." I asked her if she'd ever want to make sick kids' hearts better... her response after much deliberated thought, "No, I don't think so. I don't like to see little kids sad. I think I could be a grown-up cardiologist... take care of grown-up hearts. That would be a lot easier because grown-ups don't cry very much."

Oh, if she only knew... sniff sniff for Crestview... yes, can you believe it, for Crestview...