From Uncle John

John spent so much time doing repetative things with Livi. Things that others might have gotten bored doing after a few minutes but not John. He was so good at pretending each time was the first time they did something (even if it was the 100th) and Livi loved him for it.


A Night That Will Never Be Forgotten

One of my favorite memories of Livi took place in the evening of Feb. 4th, 2007. I was over at James and Emily’s house to watch the Super Bowl, but could not turn down an opportunity to engage in recreation with Livi in her playroom underneath the stairs. It was only about 3 ft by 5 ft in dimension and had a forest wildlife scene painted on the walls and ceiling.

So there I am, sitting with my knees in by face and Livi is showing me all the animals she does not want me to disregard, when she hears my keys jangling in my pocket. She stops pointing at the walls and piers into my pocket. Yes, it is in fact the prize she is anticipating. Carefully she pulls them out. She knows full well from experience what these pieces of ground metal will do. Momma always jingles her keys near the ignition of her car before it starts. All Livi had to do to start her car was the same.

Once Livi has the keys out of my pocket, she goes over to her car, gets on (with a little help from myself) and jingles the keys… the car “starts” and she is off. If by off you mean moving one foot forward till she hits the closed door, then yes. That does not faze her. She continues to ride her car for about another 25 seconds and then gets off and carefully replaces the keys in my pocket. She then repeats this process again and again, with no less enthusiasm.

About one hour later, she still is having the time of her life. (That was the thing about spending time with Livi, it stood still. Whenever you were with her, time did not exist.) Then Livi replaces my keys into the pocket one more time. This time she puts them in the pocket that has the broken zipper. She tries to zip it closed but nothing happens. She is worried. If the pocket does not zip closed the keys could fall out and get lost. If that happened I would not be able to drive my car home. This she tries to express by pointing to the broken zipper and shaking her head. To calm her fears, I show her the other pocket, with the zipper that works. We then put the keys in that pocket and she resumes playing at ease, knowing my keys will not possibly fall out.

I had so much fun with Livi that night. Thank you James and Emily for letting me make more than two years worth of memories with Livi. -Uncle John