Like peanut butter and jelly

When Grace was about 4-months old, my dad (Bubba) came to Nashville to have a tumor removed. Following the surgery, he lived with us for several weeks in recovery. We put a hospital bed in Grace's room and her rocker in the living room and Bubba made his way from the bed to the rocker throughout the days. Grace spent most of those days (awake and asleep) in Bubba's arms. I think it was healing for him and comforting for her. And thus began the magical relationship between this grandfather and his granddaughter. Still today, the two of them are inseparable when they're together. And when they're not together, she talks about him, dreams about him and plays pretend with him, daily. When Bubba is around and Grace is upset, worried or frustrated, she will usually choose him over me and Brad. Often, when the two are together, it is as if no one else in the world exists. I love witnessing this relationship and firmly believe that my dad was put on this earth to be a grandfather. As he has said many times before, "It is what I was born to do."

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Grace's favorite lunch is a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. She can't bring them to school (no peanuts allowed because of allergies), so when we're home she has one for lunch almost every day. For the past several months, I've started letting her make her own. A few days ago she was pulling the jelly out of the fridge and she asked me why we need to put peanut butter and jelly on our sandwich and I said, "I don't know Grace, I guess they just go together." And she was all, "like me and Bubba?" Precisely.