fire swirls

I remember clearly the first summer I lived with Matt. The first busy week came and he was home late each night. The weekend came and he had to work. And the next week was the same. By the third week, I remember realizing in shock that this wasn't going to stop. This was the new normal.
That was eight years ago, but it still takes me by surprise. Matt has logged more than 100 hours of overtime already this year. He is currently on his second "21," when he works 21 days straight and then must take a mandatory day off. And it's not even June yet.
So what, you might ask, does this have to do with Thea? Well, the other day, Matt went over to pick her up and she gave her "stranger picking me up" cry. Egads. Not that she always does that with him - she only did it because she was already tired and crabby. But still. It makes me wonder what it's going to be like for Matt to be gone on fire assignments this year.
This has been a whirlwind weekend for Liam and Thea. Yesterday, there was a scavenger hunt and two birthday parties. Today, a bike ride, playground time, picnic and barbecue at our friends house in the banana belt of downtown Homer. We are all a little windblown and tired, but it was good to get out in the sunshine, despite a persistent wind that kept temps cool and Matt running all over the Peninsula fighting fires big and small. Right now he's all the way north of Kenai where two fires kicked off at exactly 8 p.m. - quitting time - squashing my plans to go have a glass of wine with friends.
Now, the point of this post. Everyone, and I mean everyone, keeps saying how Thea has Liam's eyes. I'm going to dig through my photos of him and find one that proves what I keep saying. They may look alike now, but when Liam was her age, he looked nothing like that. Let's see what I get.