A post for the girl

My daughter was always a little old for her age. I think she was born grown up. I am thinking about her now because it is spring time, and my favorite memory of her happened in the spring. She is really sick of this story, but I will never tire of it. I plan on using it to torture her when she brings home loser guys for my disapproval...

I bought my house when my daughter was six. She was so cute, a little first-grader with her purple back pack and pig tails. I was a single mom then. At first we didn't have furniture or even a fridge or oven. We sat on a beanbag chair in the huge empty living room and slept on mattresses on the floor. Now she is thirteen. The house is filled with boys and stuff. Oh, and my poor girl, lost in this overwhelming mass of testosterone. But that is another story...

Anyway, the spring after I bought the house I was reveling in new home-ownership. On a Sunday night, I was raking the leaves and debris that had gathered in the basement window wells. A (the girl) was playing cute little girl games like Let's All Be Puppies or something with the neighbor kids somewhere nearby. Suddenly, I came across a nest of baby bunnies buried under a pile of leaves. I called A over and she came with all the neighbor kids trailing behind. I showed her my discovery and her face lit up with delight. How I loved those dimples of hers! The kids all marveled over the rabbits for a few minutes until I sent them away explaining that they needed their mom and she would not come with all of us around and to never never touch them. Then I put away my rake and A and I went in for the night. That was it for me. The mystery and majesty of baby bunnies was forgotten. Time to get back to real life.

The next day, Monday, was back to the grind. I woke up expecting the usual struggle to get A moving. Oh, but was she SLOW in the morning. A get dressed. A eat your Breakfast. A put on your shoes. A are your teeth brushed yet? Come on we gotta GO!!! Every morning was the same. Except that Monday. A was up and dressed almost instantaneously. She inhaled her breakfast and blasted her teath clean. Her bag was packed and she was ready to go a good 15 minutes before me. Wow. She is growing up! She is learning to be helpful in the morning! I told her how proud I was of her for getting ready so well that morning. Yes, she could play outside until I was ready to go...Soon I came out, packed A and myself in the car and we were on our way to a normal spring day.

The day proceeded at a normal dull drawl at work. I was in HR. People were fired, people were hired, polocies administered, meetings attended, reports written and filed. Then it was lunch. Time to check the voicemail. The usual assortment of callers inquiring about jobs, applications, insurance questions, vacation questions, pay questions, and the...what was this? A's teacher? What does she want? Oh, she only wants to know what to do with all the baby bunnies A took to school for show and tell. What?!!?!?! Oh no! I called her back and told her I would pick them up over lunch. Fortunately, I worked close to her school. But what was I going to do with a whole bunch of bunnies? I called the humane society first thing. They said put them back in the nest. Apparently, rabbits are not offended by human scent like other wild animals. Great! So I chased to the school, picked up the bunnies and chased back home (fortunately that was also close!). I dumped the bunnies in their nest and sped back to work,, only overextending my half hour lunch by about ten minutes, but who's counting anyway. What a delightful lunch.

I had considered being angry at the girl. I really tried. I even tried to lecture her about touching wild animals and sneaking the bunnies to school. But I could not do it. It was just too damn hilarious. I could not even complete the lecture without turning away several times to hide my and coughing to hide my chuckles. Oh, and when I asked her what she thought she was going to do with those bunnies? She had it all worked out. She would raise them in her room and feed them with her doll bottle, of course!

Silly Mommy.