Brittney Nicole Robbins Riggin

When Britt was learning to talk it was at the same time that her deaf brother Brice was in intense speech therapy. So she talked younger then most but she had trouble with pronouncing her own name, Britttney. She called herself "mitmey". What's your name people would ask and she proudly stated "mitmey". So we decided to do a little speech therapy our self with her. We would practice over and over brrrrrrrrrrrr. Now say brrrrrrrrrrrrr. Clear and beautifully she would say brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Then when we were certain she had it we would have her add itney but it still would come out brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrmittmey.

As the mommy I wanted Britt to have pierced ears early on. I would have been happy if she had them as a baby but Marty would not allow that. He said that when she was old enough to ask for her ears pierced he'd succumb. So my next lesson on speech was "daddy, ears pierced" . All day we practiced , over and over again until she could perfectly rehearse "Daddy, ears pierced". She was barely one year old. He came home and with a little coaching she hugged Marty and clearly stated "daddy, ears pierced" with big head nods and big puppy dog begging eyes (we rehearsed that part too). He promptly responded "head chopped off". Britt with her great mimacing talent put on those puppy dog eyes and nodding declared "head chopped off".. It was quite a while til she ever got her ears pierced.

Around this same time Britt comes running up to me one day all excited. She opens her mouth and wiggles her tongue around and in all seriousness says, "Look mommy its alive!"

She informs me one day that "When I'm the mommy and your the little girl....."

When Britt learned to count to a hundred she was insistent that I listen to all the counting she could do. All the numbers. Everyone of them from one to a hundred. Good thing she hadn't learned to count to 1000 yet!!!

When Britt was about nine, Marty handed her a dollar for something. She looked at it and said, "I love you Daddy!" The money wasn't for her but I guess she loved him anyway.

Britt we love you and you were and are a delight. Have fun with Olivia and be sure and blog all the cute things she does.

A Child's Paradise

One of the sweet blessings of my life is spending four years of my childhood in Oahu, Hawaii. Truly a child's paradise. I went to Laie Elementary school barefoot, like everyone else including the teachers. I learned to hula in first grade, "goin' to the huki lau". I wore my swimsuit under my little sundress so I could run into the ocean right after school. I could make my way home on the beach most of the way. We lived on Kamehameha Highway across the street from the ocean in a beach house. It is no longer there but the land is now part of of the Polynesian Cultural Center. I learned to surf when I was eight, watched seahorses play in the coral and would ride on my Uncle Lamond's back as he swam me out to the reef. It was there my first year in Hawaii that I learned to swim. I was five years old. You could stand up on the reef, it was about a 100 yards out from the beach but seemed like miles to me then. He started to swim away and I yelled " what about me?" . "Start swimming" he said. "you know I cant swim yet," I replied and he wisely said "You think you can't but I know you can. Jump in and swim. " I trusted him and I swam. Lamond lived with us for a time, he was enrolled at the Church College of Hawaii, now BYU Hawaii, in fine art. I would watch him work on his projects and he would let me do some art with him He told me I was an artist, I believed him about that too and am probably an artist today from that encouragement (along with the incredible support of my number one fan, Marty Robbins). Marty has taken me back to Hawaii a number of times. I sat on the beach where I played as a child and painted it in watercolor.