Mother loves Daughter

I am sort of fascinated by my precious daughter right now. I feel like I could just sit back and watch her for hours on end.

It is an interesting thing, this mother-daughter relationship, isn't it? From the minute we found out that she was a girl, we have had a steady stream of warnings about "girls."

"Ah, they're different," they'd all say. "She'll give you a run for your money, that's for sure!" And guess what? They were right. But not in the ways that I might have anticipated.

You see, I come from a long line of wonderful mother-daughter relationships. My mom is my constant support, my ultimate cheerleader, my biggest fan. And I am hers and it has always been that way, without fail. And so it was with her mother, and my great-grandmother before her. We have a long line of exceptional relationships from which I draw my strength. And it is at once fascinating and daunting to know that I am in charge of nurturing this new relationship with my own daughter. The daughter that I wasn't sure I would ever have.

So, this evening I sat down for my nightly brain-drain. The boys were playing outside and Annie was with me. We fluffed our pillows, I turned on Noggin for her, and I turned on my laptop. Ahhhh, precious quiet. About 1 minute after settling down, I was about 1/3 of the way down the latest post on CJane (if you haven't read this blog - do it. Google CJane and read) and Annie started in with her monkey business. Pressing buttons on the keyboard. I gave her a stern look. Then she pulled the power cord out of the outlet. I looked at her and said, "If you don't stop it you're going to get a spankin'." 2 seconds later, she tried to push down the screen. I took her chunky little thigh in my hand and swatted it. "Knock it off!" She smirked at me and fake focused on Noggin for a moment. I just wanted a moment in peace. I could feel the wheels turning next to me and I braced myself for the next attack. Sure enough, her sneaky little finger reached over and pressed the power button on the computer. Immediately, it shut down. I looked at Annie and in my calmest voice said, "Annie, you were naughty." And what do you think happened? Her little mouth started to turn at the corners, her lip started to shake, and the tears started flowing.

"Waaaaaaaah! I'm so sorry Mommy!" What? Holy Moly! Where did this come from?!

It was all fun and games until I insulted her. Nothing hits quite so deep as being labeled. I remember. My mom could have grounded me, punished me, done anything.... but tell me that she was disappointed with me? Forget it. That was crushing.

So I left the computer off and spent my brain-drain holding my daughter and watching Noggin. No sweeter a moment.

Little stinker.