Hidden treasure

I have spent a good part of today helping Kylie clean her room. As I have mentioned in the past, she is a bit of a pack rat. Since Rob is at an all day golf outing it seemed like a good day to tackle (and trash) some of the "goodies" she has accumulated over the last several months.

One of my favorite things about doing big cleans is that so often you find "hidden treasures" that you had long since forgotten existed. My big find today was this:

This is a poem to Kylie

This is a poem to Kylie

Kylie the youngest and the smallest

Almost two and a half months

Most observant of us all

Loudest screamer when she screams

Little angel

Passed like a gift at Christmas

Everybody wants to hold

But only one can

Missing out on Thanksgiving

But next year she won't

So I write this poem to baby Kylie

For youth and childhood

At any age

I received this as a Christmas present on Kylie's first Christmas. It was printed on blue snowflake paper, laminated, and signed by the author - my nephew Ross, who was twelve at the time. I remember reading it for the first time with tears running down my cheeks, in awe at my little nephew's very accurate depiction of his new cousin. Ross is now in his freshman year of college and Kylie is in first grade, yet in his poem I can still see the "little angel" that inspired her big cousin to put pen to paper, and the little boy who was so proud of the poem that made his aunt cry. That alone was worth the hours spent cleaning Kylie's room.