Leo has never been one for holding hands. Owen, now he loves to hold hands. Leo, however, we had to teach to hold hands and force him to do it when crossing streets, etc. Just not something that came naturally to him. Yesterday was the visitation for Dave’s father. I didn’t necessarily plan to bring the boys but I couldn’t figure out the childcare situation. Unless we didn’t take the guys to swimming of course….and Thursday is the last day of Leo’s adored swimming teacher Adam….so I hated for him to miss a day. I kept coming up with different scenarios but given that we were going out and had Hayley coming at 7:30…none of them worked. So we talked to the guys and explained what a visitation was….told them that it was important to do things like this for people you love and that yes, they would see a dead person most likely. They agreed and got ready after swim class like the good boys they are (most of the time). When we got to the visitation we had to wait in line for awhile….I kept telling the boys they could go sit on the front porch or in one of the little side rooms….to no avail…. Leo stuck like velcro to me with the tightest hand hold…well….ever. Owen was kind of curious to see the body and kept whispering to me, "I think I see it" and I’d say "yeah, that’s Ricky’s grandfather" and he’d just stare wide-eyed. Leo….well, Leo just kept holding on to my hand.
Afterwards we went across the street to West Side Park and Owen ran and played for a few minutes. Leo just sat on a bench with me and hugged me and kissed me….and held my hand.
Such sweetness. I love my nephews!