"A child is someone who passes through your life, then disappears into an adult."
This saying was written below a photograph of a cute little flower girl and appeared in a magazine, I assume, back in the early 70's. Memere Bernadette, my maternal grandmother, mother of nine children, apparently liked it because she had torn it out and placed it under a glass desk blotter for many years. I was always drawn to the picture of that little girl when I was little for some reason. Probably liked her dress or hairdo or something. When Memere died, my mom kept the clipping and had it in her bedroom drawer, among other favorite things like letters my brothers wrote her from camp, various rosary beads, Mother's day cards we'd made for her, etc. And then I lost track of it and didn't think about it for a couple decades. Flash forward to one day this past summer when my sister called me excitedly and said "Remember that picture of the little girl that mom used to love....?" She didn't even know it had once belonged to Memere Bernadette. Her memory was that mom loved it because it reminded her of me! Anyway, she gave it to me and it is now on my refrigerator, the paper now very thin and wrinkled. I told Beatrice a few sentences about it and she has asked to be lifted up many times so she can see it better in its high position of the fridge. So Friday morning I was driving her to school and we were talking when all of a sudden another car cuts me off. I automatically utter "watch it!" and Beatrice asks why I said that. I replied "I wasn't sure that the lady driving that car saw me and I was afraid we wouldn't be safe, but everything is fine," which led to a conversation about the word "lady." Beatrice wanted to know if I was a "lady" and when she would be a "lady." I told her a "lady" is kind of like a "woman," "a girl who is grown up," and that I thought she'd be considered a "young lady" maybe when she was 13 or so. Her response...
"Do I have become a lady first or do I have disappear into adult first????"
We've been having many of these FAMILY CIRCUS moments lately. Remember that "cartoon?" It was one my mother loved but I never thought belonged in the "funnies". Just a lot of "awwww..." moments that I guess you have to be a parent to "get!"
Here are some other favorites from the past couple of weeks:
"My mama is a CHEEKY Mama!" (said after I sang falsetto to the radio. Remember the scene in Mary Poppins where Mary's mirror reflection sings operatic (is that a word) during "Spoonful of Sugar" and Mary looks at the reflection and says, disgustingly..."Cheeky!"
This saying was written below a photograph of a cute little flower girl and appeared in a magazine, I assume, back in the early 70's. Memere Bernadette, my maternal grandmother, mother of nine children, apparently liked it because she had torn it out and placed it under a glass desk blotter for many years. I was always drawn to the picture of that little girl when I was little for some reason. Probably liked her dress or hairdo or something. When Memere died, my mom kept the clipping and had it in her bedroom drawer, among other favorite things like letters my brothers wrote her from camp, various rosary beads, Mother's day cards we'd made for her, etc. And then I lost track of it and didn't think about it for a couple decades. Flash forward to one day this past summer when my sister called me excitedly and said "Remember that picture of the little girl that mom used to love....?" She didn't even know it had once belonged to Memere Bernadette. Her memory was that mom loved it because it reminded her of me! Anyway, she gave it to me and it is now on my refrigerator, the paper now very thin and wrinkled. I told Beatrice a few sentences about it and she has asked to be lifted up many times so she can see it better in its high position of the fridge. So Friday morning I was driving her to school and we were talking when all of a sudden another car cuts me off. I automatically utter "watch it!" and Beatrice asks why I said that. I replied "I wasn't sure that the lady driving that car saw me and I was afraid we wouldn't be safe, but everything is fine," which led to a conversation about the word "lady." Beatrice wanted to know if I was a "lady" and when she would be a "lady." I told her a "lady" is kind of like a "woman," "a girl who is grown up," and that I thought she'd be considered a "young lady" maybe when she was 13 or so. Her response...
"Do I have become a lady first or do I have disappear into adult first????"
We've been having many of these FAMILY CIRCUS moments lately. Remember that "cartoon?" It was one my mother loved but I never thought belonged in the "funnies". Just a lot of "awwww..." moments that I guess you have to be a parent to "get!"
Here are some other favorites from the past couple of weeks:
"My mama is a CHEEKY Mama!" (said after I sang falsetto to the radio. Remember the scene in Mary Poppins where Mary's mirror reflection sings operatic (is that a word) during "Spoonful of Sugar" and Mary looks at the reflection and says, disgustingly..."Cheeky!"
"Mama, when you were a little baby, were you a girl or a boy?"
(Thanks to Chaz Bono and a few local residents whose identity Anthony and I regularly debate, I responded with a politically correct "Almost all the time, whatever you are born as is what you stay because it's a really, really, really hard thing to change.")
(Thanks to Chaz Bono and a few local residents whose identity Anthony and I regularly debate, I responded with a politically correct "Almost all the time, whatever you are born as is what you stay because it's a really, really, really hard thing to change.")
Snuggling in bed, I was pretending to take her blanket and make it mine. She pulled it back, yelling "no!" It is her most beloved possession. So I asked her what I could trade her for it. I offered all of my pillows in return for her blanket?...."NO!" A piece of chocolate cheesecake?....."NO!" 100,000 new books?.....there was a slight pause before...."NO!" 500 dollars? "NO!" 500,000 hugs and kisses? "YES, YES!"
Now here are 2 videos taken recently. One, yesterday, a clip of a moment I thought would never come. Beatrice can finally steer AND pedal her tricycle, though she enjoys far more stopping, announcing that she "ran out of gas," and dragging it to a nearby shrub for a fill-up. The other video was from the summer and I only put it so she'll have another glimpse some day of her intense 3-year old self. I've been accused by blog readers as having a child who is never NOT smiling, so here's some proof and, believe me, the video that came right before it was far worse!
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