Tobin at 74 months

As my road-weary dearth of posts continues, I wanted to recognize our best traveler of all (including Matt and myself). Even with the exciting experiences available to him, nearly every day at some point, Tobin curls up with a book, quietly reading to himself. Of course, he's done so in the car too. But we'd also spot him tucked away on a couch in the main cottage in Wisconsin or, as seen here, in Grandma's den enjoying a little solo time, nose in book. In Kentucky, he's discovered Garfield, which is a fun trip down memory lane for us and quite amusing for him.

During our extended stay in Kentucky, he's encouraged the adults around him to take breaks from funeral preparations and other related busyness to play cards and a new favorite game: Monopoly. That game necessitates quite a long break in activity and the two games played thus far have been fragmented across several days but both ended with Tobin victorious. He seems to have a knack for stacking paper and managing property.

Our thoughts and activities over the last two weeks have been focused on saying good-bye to Nana Yardley. Tobin was three and a half when his Granddad died in November 2009, right here in Grandma's house, so he has some concept of death, but Evan does not. The first few days we were here, Evan wanted to see Nana and asked where she was. We could tell him she was at the hospital at first and even took him to see her, where he saw her "sweeping." After her death, Evan asked again where Nana was and we told him she was in Heaven. Tobin followed up by asking where Heaven was. I told him that I had always thought of it up in the sky. He smiled quizzically at me and observed, "Well, that's kind of weird because we bury her body in the ground." We had a brief discussion about the difference between body and spirit, and I think Tobin let me off easily with my fumbling explanation but I imagine there will be follow-up inquiries in the days and months to come.

For Nana's funeral, Grandma, Sarah and Matt collected photos to display. Tobin quickly identified his favorite photo and sweetly asked Grandma if he could have it after the service. Grandma happily obliged. Here's the picture, taken two years ago on our last Epic Road Trip, just a couple months after Nana moved to Kentucky from Missouri. She's eighty-seven at the time and playing baseball in the backyard with Tobin. We are sad that she's gone but thankful for memories of wonderful moments like these that she was able to share with our kids--especially Tobin--in her last few years.