A Mommy Story

Today was a special day for me. Every 6 weeks or so, I’m asked to work a Saturday rotation at the university, and when that happens, my Wednesday schedule is cut by 4 hours. So not having to go into work until the late afternoon, I got to go out shopping with my mom and Cordy.

We had lunch at Ruby Tuesdays (mmmmm….Bison cheeseburgers), and Aaron met up with us for lunch. Cordelia has made a complete recovery from her roseola, and had napped that morning, so she was doing her best to be the center of attention and bat her long eyelashes at anyone who would look at her.

I never realized it until I became a parent, but children have such a way of making complete strangers amazingly happy. It started with her normal game of “Let’s Test Gravity” by throwing her crayons off the table, just as another group were being led to their table behind us. A nice, 50-ish woman stops and picks them up, taking time to chat and coo at her. Cordy promptly takes them and tosses them to the ground again, where an older lady (the other woman’s mom perhaps?) stops to pick them up and remark on my child’s spirit. Yep, she’s got spirit all right – you should see that spirit when giving her bath.

Later, after devouring a grilled cheese sandwich, some fruit, a pile of fries, and a gallon of milk, she entertained herself by testing out all of the sounds she can make, at different volumes (EEE! ooh. BaBaBa! Sa-k, SaH-keH. KEEE!) Moms at other tables smiled at us and told us how cute she was. Wait staff stopped to comment on her pretty eyes. Even a slightly demented old lady got out of her booth and came to our table to chat with our little prima donna, singing Cordy a song before going back to her smashed cauliflower and broccoli. At that point, we were creeped out, so we quickly asked for the check.

In the elevator in the mall, she charmed another couple with her bright smile, and in JC Penny she had everyone smiling and waving at her in line for the register as she chirped “Hi!…Hi!… Hi!” to them and did her famous wave (waving to herself – she hasn’t figured out that she needs to turn her hand around).

So, in the process of getting lunch and doing a little shopping, this 14 month old little girl managed to brighten the day of so many people. People she’ll probably never see again. I love that children seen to have this ability to seek out and destroy blah feelings. She’s building up her karma in bushels at this point, I think. I could only wish to make such a difference to that many people in a single day, much less an hour and a half.