Jasper, TX

Yesterday was the funeral for my Grandma’s sister. I thought it was just going to be my dad, me and Laine going but last minute efforts made it so that Erik could come to. And what a blessing that was. It would have been impossible for me to give the proper amount of respect to my family and watch over and keep Laine quiet during the services. She was really well behaved though that isn’t much of a surprise is it? She’s such a quiet well behaved kid normally that I’m not surprised at all that she was for the most part quiet and well behaved for the funeral. I’m also not surprised that after a few hours of sitting quietly she finally started acting like a baby. She hollered twice during the service and Erik just got up with her so I could stay. There was only one prayer a song and a little speaking until it was finished so she almost made it through the whole thing being quiet, as it was she was the most well behaved child there by far. There were a few other kids that were all good, but Laine was the best. Yes, my chest is puffed right now. I think I’ve come to take for granted the fact that Laine is a quiet child. I don’t normally notice that she doesn’t make that much noise. When she plays it’s the toys that make noise not her. When she talks it’s not so much a conversation she’s starting but more a statement she’s making. Of course she has her moments of running through the house screaming but that’s almost always after Erik or I instigate it. We do the “I’m coming to get you” thing and make the monster noises and she runs and screams and laughs, then she’ll stop and wait for me to advance on her again so that she can run again, but if I don’t advance she stops too, and she moves on to something else. When we got home after the trip Laine stayed up until after 11:30 since she’d done so much sleeping in the car, but she was quiet the whole time. My epiphany came when she laughed after she head butted me while we were watching TV. Her laugh was cacophonous. I’d had the TV turned down pretty low since there was no noise it was competing with and all the lights were out to try to get Laine to sleep, and when that laugh rang out it was like church bells, so loud. I swear I jumped. I’ve just never noticed before how quiet Laine can be.
After the funeral we headed over to Grandmas for a little bit to visit and eat some cookies that Nikki had made. My Grandfather called me while we were there to thank me for the chocolate cake I made for him that my Mom brought to him. I never made him a chocolate cake but I said your welcome anyway. I think he might have been talking about the brownies but I didn’t see any reason to correct him. Laine ate a cheese sandwich and played with Grandma for a bit then we had to head back out. Finally we got home around 8:00 and since Laine had been asleep for so many hours in the car she stayed up late, but once she did go to sleep she stayed down until I woke her up this morning. I really do have a great kid.