je t'aime

First, I would be a terribly ungrateful Whimsy if I didn't say thank you to each and every one of you who commented on yesterday's post. What a sweet outpouring of love and support. It was a palpable feeling, your thoughts and wishes and prayers - they buoyed me up and I felt so very loved. (Which is going to sound SUPER IRONIC AND FUNNY when you read today's post.) But quickly, before you go on to read that particular trainwreck, I should say that we are all fine here. The doctor's visit was actually several weeks ago - but I had been working on the post for a while and then didn't want to bring down the fun atmosphere last week. So I posted it yesterday. Life around here is good and homey and (say again) just fine. Bean is an extraordinarily patient and long-suffering child. She might be upset in the moment, but she shrugs it off and all is right with the world just a few moments later. Remember: this is the kid that the x-ray techs strapped into a torture device. Only three minutes after she was removed from said torture device, she was doing twirls in the hallway and cheerily shouting BYE! to the folks in the waiting room. I am a lucky parent. For so many reasons.

And now...

It was a short couple of weeks ago that Bean expressed her very first declaration of LOVE --- completely unaided, unprompted, unprovoked by me.

Or anyone else.

Her face was alight with affection, cheeks squished high until her eyes were mere smudges---

LOVE YOU!!!

A parent's heart would quite literally MELT WITH JOY over such a thing, don't you think?

I have to be totally honest here: I really was quite moved by the expression.

Moved to sheer CONFOUNDEDNESS.

Because my dearest only child was not professing this smudgy sticky-fingered over-the-moon LOVE for me.

No.

She was saying this dear utterance to this:

Afterwhich she gave him a hug.
And a 'tiss'.

And for dear mommy?

She patted my knee and then said, "ALICE! CRACKERS!"

Since that confession of devotion, she has shared her extreme entusiastic expression of sweetness by saying LOVE YOU to the following:

............................phoebe.

............................bo.

............................daddy.

............................elmo.

............................hurp.

......................................chair.

............................bowl.

............................rock.

............................basket.

............................tv remote.

............................plastic food.
and some others including Grammy Dawn, our front door, our car, the cat food DISHES (I wish I was kidding)

Upon the most brief of considerations, it would seem that the ONE ITEM SHE HAS NOT SAID THOSE PRECIOUS WORDS to is none other than...

HER MOTHER.

Not that I'm bitter or anything. I mean really.