Papa's Girls

One of Ellie's favorite things in the whole wide world is her Papa. This is almost an obsession with her, and it has been almost as long as she has been alive. It is kind of an ongoing joke with my Mom and me that Ellie likes to go to church so much because she thinks the "He and Him" they speak of is Papa. It is honestly THAT bad. Ellie has a lot of people in her life outside of Warren and myself that she is really close with, and she looks forward to visits from many people...(and I mean that sincerely, not just diplomatically speaking) there is just something about Papa. She is a Papa's girl.

I was a Papa's girl too. (Although I am still Nana's girl as well) It has been told to me that when my Papa would come home from work, and he went into the bathroom to shower that I would sit outside the door and wait for him. I remember as a kid, my siblings and I had to take turns going to Nana and Papa's house to avoid fights over who was going that weekend. When I was in junior high my grandparents moved in to an apartment that they had built over my parent's garage, and I think we grew even closer because of that. My Papa passed away 6 years ago, and it's still hard without him, I miss him a lot, it's hard to know that he never got to meet Warren or our girls. He would have loved Warren and he would have gotten a huge kick out of Ellie and her attitude especially. (not that I get that big a kick out of it these days). I do have to mention that Ellie loves her Nana "Up-Up", my Nana (who lives upstairs of my parents thus the up-up). She often asks me if I am going bye-bye and Nana up-up is going to watch her, and tells me that Nana up-up makes THE BEST cookies ever!

Papa took Ellie and Paity to the Easter Egg Hunt at the Boston Town Hall, which was kind of a flop for the older kids (especially because Paity helped Ellie, and by the time she was done, the big kids were done too) but Ellie didn't seem to mind. It was an Easter egg hunt and, well...Papa took her. Then, this past week Papa took Ellie and Paity and Aunt Patti (does it get any beter??) to see Horton Hears a Who. It was Ellie's first time in a movie theater, they told me she was good...I don't know for sure if that is true. When I asked her about the movie she told me once, "there was an elephant, and his name was Horton." Later, I asked her to tell me more and she informed me that, "I don't really want to talk about it right now, ask me later".

This past week the times Papa was at our house, Gracie followed him around, kept wanting him to hold hold her, and she cried when he left our house...Here we go again!

I know it was a little hard for my Dad to decide to use the Papa name, those were big shoes to fill, and my Dad is an amazing Papa. Papas are very special and specific people, I am glad that Paity, Ellie, Gracie and Claire have a Papa, and I am glad that I had one too.