She ran in, a blur of orange and bright sunny yellow. She ran directly for the fridge in her happy yellow sandals, opened it right up and grabbed her juice box. This was a girl with a plan. I smiled and stared at her beautiful bun, her sassy outfit and her sweet smile. Every pair of eyes in Red Horse were on her. I looked up at her mother, at the ATM, perfect in her striped dress and amazingly matched shoes, pregnant and fabulous even in the heat.
"Wow," I said. "She's amazing." She smiled a smile that said, "it's hard to mother amazing..."
When I went to sit outside, Annabelle joined me and we chatted a bit, about her booboos ("I fell," she admitted) and other things of importance to a three-year-old. Her blue eyes stared in awe at my gold stars. I happily gave her lots of them, and the one more she wanted after that.
Her mom shook her head at her audacity, her stubbornness. I just smiled. "It's a pain now, for you," I said, "but it will serve her well in life."
No doubt, Annabelle is going places and her mom, Jessica, is helping her along, putting her own fears aside to help her awesome daughter gain crucial independence, to learn to trust in her own awesomeness.
And that's why I gave Annabelle and Jessica their stars. And why I'm thinking of hiring Annabelle as my new publicist...
My girls! --Mike, husband of Jessica, dad to the indomitable one. Hey,, real cool blog!
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ReplyDeleteThis reminds me of my little girl! She is only 18 months but she's amazing too. And, by amazing, I mean she's a little bit sugar and a whole lot of spice. Determined, smart, independent and giving us a run for our money. I imagine that I often sport the "it's hard to mother amazing" look. I wouldn't change her for anything but, oh boy, I don't know how I'm gonna keep up. Isn't it wonderful?
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