Saturday, June 16, 2012

Ego Booster

I'm a member, as I've mentioned before, of an online mom's group. We've all been friends now for more than five years, and had a couple of vacations together, and some pretty great playdates. I've gotten to hold newborns belonging to two of these lovely women, I've hosted dinner for a pack of them at my home, and stayed at the homes of two of them. We've helped each other when things weren't going well, and we've celebrated birthdays and mourned some pretty significant losses together. All this to say, we're pretty tight.

When we were starting to get to know each other, we always had a question of the day, to get the conversation started. Recently, we've gone back to it, just for fun, because we're all so busy that we often forget to check in, or we read what's being written without commenting. There's usually a mom question of the day, and one to ask the kid. So, this brings me to the point of my story.

Recently, the question of the day involved how we feel about our looks. My looks being a completely uninteresting topic for me, I was nonetheless interested in what Small would answer to her half of the question, which was, basically, asking what she likes about her Mama's looks. Since she's told me recently that she hopes she'll grow up to be as beautiful as I am- (heaven knows I'm hoping she'll do a little better than that!)- I wondered how she'd answer the question about specifics. Here's how it went.

Me: Hey, Small One, here's a question for you! What do you like about how I look?
Small: What do YOU like about how you look?
Me: Ha ha, no, it's not  a question for me, it's for you! Is there anything you like about the way I look?
Small: (considers for a moment) Well, I don't really know... I mean, actually everything!
Me: (laughing) Well, ok, then!
Small: (very serious and sincere, obviously working to say what she means) No, Mommy, I want to tell you the truth. No mommy is like you. No mommy in the whole world!

I think my heart may burst.

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