Dash of Reality

After leaving Jon to man the grill and Izzy to finish the rest of lunch, I moved to the family room to check on the little girl who holds my heart. She looked tired, but was smiling as I approached her. She was on the floor with my nieces.
“Hey pretty girl! Hi Maddie, how are you?” I asked my niece who looks so much like my sister it is scary. She even acts like Abby too; she’s a sarcastic little girl. Meanwhile, Sadie is shaping up to be a lot more similar to Patrick, which is also scary. Maddie has also taken on a protective parent role to Brooklyn, even though she is only a couple of years older. Maddie likes Brooklyn better than her own sister, and it is pretty hilarious.
“Good, Auntie Em. Brookie and I are hungy though.” She is having a hard time pronouncing her r’s and that’s why hungry is really hungy. However, I don’t like that she has taken to speaking for Brooklyn. My favorite little girl has already been put back in the development charts because of the cancer, but with Maddie doing the talking; it is just pushing Brooklyn back even further. I really need to talk to Abby about this.
“Izzy will have lunch ready soon. Promise,” she smiled and went back to playing with the dolls next to Brooklyn. Sadie was more entertained by her hands then the dolls, and Brooklyn was fascinated by me and my voice. So I kissed the top of her head and let her keep playing with the girls. Or as much playing as those three do.
I got up and went to talk to my sorority sister, the one dating Patrick Kane. She is in a group of women, talking and drinking wine. When I get closer, I see that she is talking to Abby, Dayna Seabrook, and Kelly-Rae Keith. They are practically the three power women in WAGs because they are married to the guys who have been on the team the longest. I had told Carolyn, my sorority sister, when I heard she was coming today that these are the women you need to impress in order to be considered ‘in.’ I had an unfair advantage coming into the WAGs group, because obviously Abby is my sister and also because I was the nanny first. I made that connection to the women before the girlfriend connection which was something that Carolyn couldn’t do.
“Hey Care, Dayna, Kelly-Rae, sis,” I say to my guests and my closest friends here in Illinois. I wish that Caroline or Delaney could have made it down from Manitoba where they live with their husbands who are Jon’s best friends in Canada, but that hadn’t happened this time. They were busy with work and the holidays seemed to throw their schedules really off. And Delaney got pregnant this winter so traveling isn’t in her cards right now either.
“How are you doing today, Em? You look happy,” Kelly-Rae points out. I didn’t realize it, but I am happy. Today has been going so well and Brooklyn seems to be enjoying herself and not looking overly exhausted early on. And Jon was talking about our future, so I’m really happy.
“I am happy, Kelly-Rae. Today has been going so well and everyone seems to be enjoying themselves. It has been a great day. But anyways, what conversation did I interrupt? Please, carry on with that.” They looked between each other and then laughed.
“We were talking about our old college days, Em. Are you sure we should continue? You were quite the sorority girl.” Care and I had talked about how she could make a good impression on these women and we determined that telling people about our college days would be one way to go. I don’t know which stories she has been telling them, but there are numerous and they are pretty good. I enjoyed college, but still had a strong pull to academics because otherwise my parents wouldn’t have helped me pay for it.
“Depends on which story you want to tell next.” I challenge her. She gets a devious smile on her face and I instantly know which one she is going to launch into. “I think I’ll go get some wine and hopefully by the time you are done telling it, I will be back.” They laughed as I walked away. I found myself in the kitchen and received a glare from Izzy. “I’m just getting a glass of wine, promise!” she nodded and kept on cooking. It smelled great and I was really impressed that she did all of this for a little girl’s first birthday.