We said good-bye to Sophie’s brother (also known as her brother-in-law) this morning. He’ll be back in Iraq in a few days and won’t be home until the end of the year. The past fifteen days have flown by.

Notice Sophie’s hand on her “brother’s” face. True love.

Sometimes Sophie will refer to Trey as her brother-in-law but more often than not he’s her brother and don’t you say otherwise. She recently called Nana (also known as my mom) and asked in a somewhat frustrated tone, “do you know where Trey is? Because he hasn’t called me back yet!” Nana reminded her that Trey was in Mississippi and assured her that he would call her back. And then she attempted to calm the sixteen-year-old trapped in a four-year-old’s body by telling her how wonderful it was that she has Trey in her life because she now has a brother. Thanks, Nana, for cementing Sophie’s belief that Trey, in fact, is her brother.

“Yes he is,” Sophie told Nana. “And he’s always gonna’ be my brother!”

What’s especially fascinating is that apparently he has been her brother since she was a wee infant. In the hospital waiting room in Florida during my uncle’s recent surgery, Sophie shared this information with Nana. Nana held her pack of crackers out and asked Sophie a very simple question: “Would you like one?”

“Yes. I haven’t had these in a long time,” she said and eagerly took one.

Interesting. We have an endless and varied supply of cracker packs here at home. I buy them for her preschool snacks. I buy them because I like them. Joe’s dad sends them because he knows Sophie likes them. So. . .

Sophie continued. “Yea, my brother gave me one when I was a tiny baby.”

“Oh, really? Who’s your brother,” Nana asked.

“Trey. He gave me one and I started choking and my mama came in saw me choking and she said, ‘WHAT did you give her? Did you give her some chocolate?’ and my brother told her, ‘no, I gave her a cracker’ and then my mama just helped me stop choking. And my brother just went and laid down on the couch.”

So that’s how we found out that Trey has been her brother all along since she was a tiny baby. And also that she has a phenomenal memory. It’s astounding, really, how she can recall such detail from her days as a wee baby. Needless to say, I’ve been watching Trey closely to see if he’s slipping Gavin any crackers. Gavin has two teeth and could gum a cracker to pieces anyway but we can’t be too careful around Sophie. A choking experience with Gavin just might bring back the traumatic experience of her brother giving her a cracker that made her choke and then leaving the scene to crash on the couch.

Actually, that would pale in comparison to her possibly sharing her descriptive memories of life with her “brother” before he married her sister.