As Mark was going through his computer looking for old photos he came across this video from 2010. We had our great nieces Nadine and Zoey over for the weekend. As you can see Nadine couldn’t last much longer. I bet she heard the first time uncle Mark read Nils All Alone but then fell fast asleep. While little Zoey was ready to go all night. Most of the family referred to her as the energizer bunny, this kid would fight sleep. Mark had already read this book to them three times, each time Zoey would try and repeat or converse about the story. After the third time I had to pull out our Flip recorder, and am I ever glad I did. This video never gets old to me. I just burst with love at every little gesture she makes. I look at that little person as she tries to communicate and it’s the sweetest thing.

At the time of this video she was 29 months old. Zoey is now 6, and boy can she talk, and she is now reading books to us. To this day she still is a night owl and is always finding ways to stall going to sleep. I love to watch her in this video and see how she starts twirling her hair around and biting on her blanky. That was always a sign that she was just about ready to settle down. Now I know why in the morning when she would wake up her hair would look like a firecracker went off in the bed. I miss that little girl, but it has made me realize how we have to cherish each stage in a persons life. She has become quite the entertainer for our family, which really doesn’t surprise me. Seeing this makes me feel so happy to be alive to watch all of our nieces, and nephews grown into the people they are today. Now after seeing this I know it’s time for us to have another weekend with them real soon before they go on to not wanting to be around us old folks.