“Mommy”, she began, matter-factly, smart and Scotty-like. Her little nose could have been turned up, a red ribbon round her neck and shoulders. Instead, my daughter’s long kitty pj pants and too-small polka dot pj shirt brought her more down to earth. She is my full-of-personailty, Pippie Longstocking, pippin and sweet friend, my sassy girl who does her best to listen.

She began with an almost imperceptible starting breath and the glimmer of a smile, “I love you even when you get mad at me”.

 

(Five minutes prior, she had gotten upset & swatted at me in frustration, then proceeded to mimic me. Not good.

Of course we had a talk).

“You love me even when I’m mad at you? Oh, really, sweetie? Well, thank you, and…good”.

“And I love you even when you make fun of me”.

“What??? I don’t make fun of you”! She must have seen my cockeyed brows, my puzzlement, even in the darkness of                             tuck-in. She really knows how to take a dramatic stand.

Yes, yes you do, she corrected in playful singsong, “Yes, you do.”

And, she continued, “I love you even when you make mistakes”.

“Wow, honey. That is really beautiful. Thank you so much.

I love you when you make mistakes, too”.

“I don’t make mistakes”, she may have countered. This was a tennis match. My four year is the lobber of the house.

“I would love you even if you spilled buckets of glitter all over the house”.

And you, too.

This was fun! Here was another zinger, easy to picture. “I would love you, still, K, darling, if you squirted ketchup all over the walls, and then rolled and got all goopy in it.”

And her brother, too? She wanted to know.

“I would still love you even if you had accidents every night in bed and I had to wake up and clean you.

“I would love you, too”. She was my tabby kitten, purring in my arms.

“Wait—and poo poo, too?” she needed to know! “Also, mama, you HAVE to love me forever, all the time! You’re my MOTHER! That’s what mothers do! What they are supposed to do”!

“And of course,” because she so eloquently discourses,

Even in the dark, a little cheshire cat. There was a broad grin. I felt it. She  said, “I love you even when you gas”.

What?? Who is this girl??

“Yes, I love you toooo much, lady”. This is what she says to me. “Lady”. What a little punk or pumpkin. A sweetie.

 

At that we had me leave so sleeping could start.

A dozen kisses on the nose and I was out.

That girl, man. Sheesh!