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The highest compliment

My son just finished his last day of the USU preschool lab, and he came home with a family picture we had sent at the start of the semester and which had been laminated.

I handed the photo to my baby, and she beamed when she saw our faces. Then she proceeded to put the photo in her mouth.

It reminded me of this quote from Maurice Sendak: "Once a little boy sent me a charming card with a little drawing on it. I loved it. I answer all my children’s letters — sometimes very hastily — but this one I lingered over. I sent him a card and I drew a picture of a Wild Thing on it. I wrote, “Dear Jim: I loved your card.” Then I got a letter back from his mother and she said, “Jim loved your card so much he ate it.” That to me was one of the highest compliments I’ve ever received. He didn’t care that it was an original Maurice Sendak drawing or anything. He saw it, he loved it, he ate it."

I'm glad that's how Baby Girl feels about her family. She saw us, she loved us, she ate us.

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