Macy apparently didn't believe me & Amanda when we told her I had to go back to Florida ("Florida by the pool") today. She thought we were kidding. I guess that to a 2.5-year-old, an 11-day visitor starts to feel like a fixture in your life.
I gave her a hug anyhow and said goodbye. I gave her lots of kisses on her neck while we were hugging. "No moochers!" she yelled. "I don't like moochers!" Tough, I said. Then I gave Amanda a hug and moochers on her neck. :)
My leaving coincided with the time that Amanda had to walk Macy to the babysitter's, down the street. I waved and got in my car and started to drive away. I decided to do a U-turn so I could go beep at them as a last goodbye. I saw Amanda yelling at me as I drove, so I rolled down the window.
Apparently as I started to drive away, Macy finally believed that I was leaving. She started yelling, "Didn't say goodbye to Stacey! Didn't say goodbye to Stacey!"
So I got out of the car and went up to the sidewalk, where Macy broke into a full run with her arms outstretched. I picked her up and hugged her and said goodbye.
And this makes me tear up every time I think of it. Including now!
I'm Stacey. I'm a 31(!)-year-old Wisconsin girl living in sunny South Florida. The highlights in my life are my lovely boyfriend, my aloof cats, my adorable/adoring stepdogs, my two lumbering tortoises, select family members, being outside, being underwater, taking pictures, yadda yadda. Stay tuned for lots of babbling!
A small boy lived by the ocean. He loved the creatures of the sea, especially the starfish, and he spent much of his time exploring the seashore.
One day the boy learned there would be a minus tide that would leave the starfish stranded on the sand.
When the tide went out, he went down to the beach, began picking up the stranded starfish, and tossing them back into the ocean.
An elderly man who lived next door came down to the beach to see what the boy was doing. Seeing the man's quizzical expression, the boy paused as he approached. "I'm saving the starfish!" the boy proudly declared.
When the neighbor saw all of the stranded starfish he shook his head and said: "I'm sorry to disappoint you, young man, but if you look down the beach, there are stranded starfish as far as the eye can see. And if you look up the beach the other way, it's the same. One little boy like you isn't going to make much of a difference."
The boy thought about this for a moment. Then he reached his small hand down to the sand, picked up another starfish, tossed it out into the ocean, and said: "Well, I sure made a difference for that one!"
