Phinnaeus and Marigold

In my day-to-day posts here on my boring-little-blog, I don't write much about my family, and I never post pictures of them. All over the internet people post pictures of their children doing wonderfully cute things -- wrangling cattle and branding horses, or is it the other way around, I never know -- and doing all sorts of other amazing things kids do. So I thought today I would tell you about Phinnaeus and Marigold. No, those are not their real names -- obviously -- and this is not a picture of them.

Phinnaeus and Marigold are three years apart in age, and for the most part they are great friends. They have their moments of course, as all siblings do, but they seem to genuinely like each other -- in spite of Phinnaeus's 14 year-old boy cooties, and Marigold's tweeny obsession with Justin Bieber. Over the years as I have observed Phinnaeus and Marigold, the one thing that has always impressed me the most is what nice people they are. I believe everyone is born with a certain "centre" or "essence" and both Phinnaeus and Marigold have a lovely centre. I can see a lot of my father in Phinnaeus. He's an old soul, and very complex. He has a wonderful sense of humor, and he can be the world's biggest goof at times, but he doesn't tolerate fools glady. He's very bright, and he has his own ideas about how the world works. He's like his Mom in that everything he tries to do, he does well.

Marigold is blessed with great beauty. She has the fine, exquisite features of a future Grace Kelly or Audrey Hepburn. She has straight dark hair and reminds me of my own mother. When I look at Marigold, I can imagine what my mother must have been like as a girl. She is extremely bright and very feisty -- also like my mother -- and she has a quiet, knife-edged wit that sneaks up on you when you least expect it. When Marigold was a toddler, she was always racing to catch up to her big brother. She couldn't say his name, so she called him "Buddy". "Buddy! Buddy!"

I love seeing Phinnaeus and Marigold together. I took a wonderful photograph of them on Sunday, but my family prefers that I not post pictures of them on the internet, so I can't share it with you. The picture captured their essence, and it's one that I will always treasure.

Phinnaeus and Marigold are very nice people, and I have a feeling they will be nice people for their whole lives. I think their Mom and Dad have every reason to be extremely proud of them.