Papa, you’re a real good picture taker.  They put your pictures up at work… they must be good because they wouldn’t let just anyone do that.”

You were sitting beside on my the sofa on an early Sunday evening, edging close as you sometimes do… something I love.  You’re not big on the hugs & kisses stuff these days (after all you’re going to be 10), but the love and warmth is still there and I feel it from you often.

You were complimenting me on my photography!  thanks Ben, I love taking photos and appreciate your telling me this!

One of the things I enjoy about you being older is your ability to carry on a conversation.   Not only conversations I start, or someone else, but the ones you initiate on your own because you’ve got something to say.

As we sat on the sofa you had some other thoughts to share.  you were showing me how to play Plants & Zombies more strategically – what plants to plant to stop the onslaught of monsters constantly moving forward.  I asked about all the other fancy kinds of plants that can be selected and you said:

I just pick the sunflowers and a couple others.  I just go with the basics.

It was the way you said it… an easy going style that was inviting a two-way conversation.

We were talking about you going to school… first Kindergarten, then elementary school, then Middle School (in September!!), then high school, then college.  That’s when you said:

Yeah, then I can live my own life.

Then you said something that caught me off guard, not because of what you said, but how you wanted to share it with me, in that particular moment:

You’re the best Papa… other grandfathers just sit around but you are cool and do things with us.

Wow, it doesn’t get any better than this!  Thanks Ben, I love you so much it’s sometimes hard getting all the emotion I feel about you expressed, but that’s exactly what you were doing with me!   That’s one of the reasons I decided to write these blogs… to share the moments that are so fleeting and special.