Babcia and Sophie share a very special relationship. It’s no wonder, given the amount of time that they spend together. Between the time they spend, and the similarities in their personalities, they are very close. Although I don’t know if it’s the similarities in personality so much as the fact that Sophie reminds Babcia of my brother when he was little. Babcia was very close with my daughter when she was little as well, and they spent a lot of time together too. It’s different though, not less – but it is different. Sophie reminds us all of her dad in so many ways, with hints of her mama thrown in for good measure. She is friendly and personable, she is caring towards others, her thoughts and dreams are big, and she is steadfast in her beliefs. She has a big personality and a big smile to go along with it. The Polish Prince has his hands full with this one.

Sophie is 9 years old. She is very quick witted and observant, and she questions everything. Until this past week though, she had not yet learned how to tie her shoes. Doesn’t it seem to go that way with the smart people? They can figure out world problems but then there’s always one little thing that trips them up. Sophie reads beyond her grade level, aces school, knows and speaks to everyone in the neighborhood, and does science projects in the kitchen… but she couldn’t quite master the whole shoe-tying thing. Personally, I just think she hadn’t really tried too hard up until this point, because I believe once that child puts her mind to it she is capable of just about anything. She did the same thing with learning to ride a bike… it took her a little bit but now she’s a little speed racer cruising around the ridge on her bicycle. One day this past week Babcia said to Sophie, “You will take one shoe and I’ll take the other and we’re going to sit here until you learn how to tie a shoe.” It must have been just the right moment because Sophie was ready to learn. So they sat side by side on the couch, trying over and over again, until she finally got the hang of it and did it all on her own. Everyone in the family immediately got a text with a picture of tied shoes saying, “Look what I did!” She was SO proud of herself. She texted me (on Babcia’s phone), “Babcia taught me to tie my shoes!” Sophie doesn’t know it yet, but this was a moment to keep. It’s a memory she will have and look back on one day with an understanding of the love and patience Babcia had for her. It was one of the small, beautiful pieces of life that they shared and she will remember how good it felt, along with the fact that her Babcia taught her.

In a celebratory mood, Sophie decided it would be a good idea to have a tea party. She instructed Babcia the day before. “Tomorrow I will bring some dresses over to try on and we will have a tea party. You will have to wear a dress too.” Babcia rarely wears dresses any more. But you better believe she wore a dress for Sophie. They had not just one tea party, but 2 or 3 tea parties for a few days in a row. Of course each day they had to wear a different dress. And each day, they used Babcia’s china. The china belonged to Babcia’s mother, Sophie’s great grandmother. It is no longer a full set, only pieces remain due to a house fire some 20 years ago. Babcia and Poppy lost almost everything in that fire; luckily the china had been kept in a metal wardrobe. After the fire was out and settled, we were able to go back into the house (what was left of it) and retrieve a few pieces of the china for her to keep. She was so happy. The Polish Prince however was not happy with me, as I went back into the house when I probably shouldn’t have. It was all worth it to see her smiling and her tears dried up. In the end, he actually helped me and we did it together.

Sophie now sips tea (actually hot chocolate) from the dainty tea cups that once belonged to her great grandmother, Marianna Dobek. I am sure that those tea cups enjoyed quite an active social life in times past, and probably only came out on special occasions. What Babcia has taught Sophie is that special occasions can happen any time. What makes them special is the people we surround ourselves with, not the props we use. That china traveled from Chicago to West Virginia, sat in storage unused, and survived a house fire just to be held by Marianna’s great granddaughter and Marianna’s own daughter as they celebrated learning to tie a shoe. If that’s not a special occasion, I don’t know what is.