When I picked her up from school, she ran into my arms with pure glee.
Who even uses that word anymore, glee?
She hugs with her whole heart for a long time, nothing tepid or half-hearted.
Elena has always cried in a grown-up way. Her eyes fill up with tears but there's no sound.
She had her bags for overnight but she had the sniffles and a cold coming on. "I want to come over til night, but then I want to go home with my Mommy and Daddy."
We went to a couple of shops in old town Helotes while waiting for her parents' to get my text. One of the shops used to be a Mexican restaurant where went on Friday nights when Day and Will were little.
She chose a plastic horse and an old ceramic cow creamer, but wanted to be sure we went to the
"Sewing store" where they have the big-eyed stuffed animals she likes.
I'd forgotten that last time we went to Jo Ann's she'd spent half an hour choosing just the right one and I'd promised we'd get another one next time.
"Grownups sure do have a lot of work to do," she said as we were driving.
"Like what?" I asked.
"Making rules for their children, going to their jobs, making the food, fixing things when they break."
"Children don't have to do anything but what they want," she said.
"What kind of rules do your parents make?" I asked.
"Like not being rude to your brother and making good choices," she said.
"Sometimes I am rude to my brother because he doesn't let me play with his Legos."
When one driver honked at another, she said, "One time someone even honked at my parents!
That is so rude! Other people are not the boss of us!"
"Who is the boss of us?" I asked.
"Jesus and God," she said. "But they don't talk so you can't ever really hear them."
At eleven when her parents came to pick her up, she said,
"But now I wish I said I would spend the night! I'm not sick anymore."
We'd started watching Tarzan but had to stop because 'it got sad."
"Let's just sit on the floor and make art things."
So we did, me and Love Bug and Racoony and Liddy, the stuffed animals."
"Sometimes I donate my toys," she said, "But never my stuffed animals. They need me."
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