Changes

I'm torn about addressing these photos. Am I giving away too much by describing them? It's just that Alice is so alive in them.

She referred to this occasion as "the reunion" because she, Sophie and I hadn't been in the same place at the same time in several months. My mom insisted on a photo of the 3 of us together. There had been some space between Sophie and me for insignificant reasons, and there had been space between Sophie and Alice, too. Actually, there had been space between Alice and me as well, yet with this visit I was feeling her all over again. Naturally.

So we lined up as we are, and I didn't know this until later: Alice was upset that we weren't in the order in which we always have been in photos. Always, the order of the three children were Sophie, Alice, Haig. Or, Haig, Alice, Sophie. Alice was always between her brother and her sister. Except in these photos, hence her very lively corresponding facial expressions.

In the last photo, L did something cute on the grass to grab Alice's and Sophie's attention, although why not mine? I'm just her dad.

Like me, Alice had difficulties with change. Why should we change the order in which we've always been? This time it was different, so what we get are snapshots of a very animated Alice.

To be sure, Alice was a ham for the camera when she felt like it, and this was no exception. She was having fun with us. May she have fun for eternity.