Our cloverbuddy, Hendrix!
He's been a bit of spiritual fodder. It's taken a while to process his presence. So 3 seems unreal in so many ways, yet in other ways it's like he's been around forever. And even sort of like a 4-leaf clover feeling -- when standing in an abundant patch of clover and there's just that one. And as lucky and blessed as it feels when we find a 4-leaf clover (mostly Vanessa since she seems to have a history), I'm feeling more lucky and blessed to have found this clover in an abundant patch of enduring family.
Like a 3-lobed clover, Hendrix truly symbolizes faith, hope and love to me. And even when days are hard, I can't wait to soak up and feed on the next year with him, our 4-H year. I hope Hendrix always knows that I pledge to continue to always pray for his HEAD, HEART, HANDS, and HEALTH, forever and ever, amen.
NOTE: Pics. . . ha, ha! The tie wasn't a part of the picture, originally. But his dad knew the best bribe for getting Hendrix to take off his "football shirt" and PJ pants, to humor his mommy with a few pics -- "Hendrix, do you want to wear a tie like Daddy? Daddy will let you pick out one of his ties." Daddy happened to be home (ironically because of our unlucky van) when I was making a 2nd real attempt at pics, about a week after the 1st attempt. It worked! Although for a second, after returning to the great room dressed and ready, he realized he had been duped, and he was going to have to do something someone else wanted him to do to keep his end of the deal.
Interestingly, Hendrix is the one who picked out the hat and clovers at the store one day, about a month ago. Upon letting him buy the things, I thought Oh, maybe we can get him to take pictures for me with these things. A couple weeks passed and when we attempted, he refused to take pictures, even with bribery offers of suckers and playing video games. And in the beginning, the only thing I wanted in a pic was for Hendrix to put on his nice grey shirt, just one more time, before passing it on.
During the 1st attempt, Hendrix had carried everything away, pulling clovers off the wall, throwing the hat across the room, and placing his clothes far away from where I was attempting a couple of shots. During the 2nd attempt, I didn't put clovers and the hat back in scene -- by that point I was going to be happy with my kid dressed for a pic. But Hendrix stopped the shoot to go grab the clovers and hang them on the wall. He also sort of wanted to hold the hat.
I'm certain we'll always remind him of the year we wanted to take his 3-year-old pictures, and how he demonstrated his strong will to try and maintain control of the entire situation.
