Hello and welcome to the July edition of Adventures in Parenting. Over the last month I took some time to do some research to set up the pregnancy and parenting section. I plan to add to it constantly until we have one of the best collections of pregnancy and parenting information on the net.

Your breaking my heart mommy....

It's in pieces all over the floor..........

When my oldest was a year and a half I had laid her down for a nap. All was quiet and I sat down to watch a movie. After some time I decided she had been sleeping for an awful long time. I went to check on her but she wasn't in her room. I looked in my room. There on my new satin sheets and bedspread was my red baby fast asleep. She had helped herself to my lipstick. My gasp of horror woke her up and her head popped straight in the air. I pretty mommy. I pretty. "Your pretty all right ", I said, " lets get you in the bath". Her dad was going to be taking her out that night. Her blonde hair was a mess of red and every portion of her covered. It wasn't the cheap lipstick either. It was the expensive kind that doesn't like to wash off. 

I brought her into the bathroom taking care not to get the lipstick on anything else. I ran the bath. When I went to put her in she started screaming. NO I PRETTY MOMMY. I PRETTY FOR DADDY. I picked her up so she could see in the mirror how she looked. I said , "look Mandy your all red" and set her down. She glared at me lip stuck out and yelled what would later become her trade mark saying. "YOUR BREAKING MY HEART MOMMY", she looked down and spread her hands wide, " It's in pieces! All over the floor". She sat staring at the pieces of her heart spread everywhere. The drama she put into this was astonishing. I could almost see the pieces of her heart on the floor. I wasn't sure if I wanted to laugh or cry or bend down and pick up the tiny little pieces and put them back together again. 

Feeling awful and yet strangely amused at the same time I cleaned my red baby up as best I could. It had stained her skin pretty good and when her father picked her up to my utter humiliation I had to explain why his daughter was all red. I could tell he was disgusted with me but it was as clean as I could get her without scrubbing her skin off. He was still upset with me when he brought her back. It was one of those mommy moments.

Everyone who had ever seen one of these your breaking my heart moments with Mandy would never forget it. It's a guarantee when the subject of Mandy is brought up someone will say "your breaking my heart....." and everyone will laugh. She put all the passion into that expression of a world class actress. Mandy is a master of the imagination. 

It wasn't long after that she would have us all eating pretend bacon and eggs. She would sit on the floor taking care not to splash her imaginary grease while flipping them. Then we would eat the pretend eggs. She put so much into it you almost wondered if you weren't really eating eggs. No detail of the illusion was missed. would you like ketchup with that?

Now Mandy's a big girl. Fiercely independent. Imaginative and creative. She's so beautiful. I am so proud to see how she has grown, but I also miss my pretty red baby.