Girls

An 18 month old Zoe is pure delight.

She loves to eat as much as her mother, and she loves sweets as much as her father, a deadly and darling combination. At the announcement of an impending meal or snack, she comes running from the far reaches of the house, giggling and shouting "Hooray! YAY! YAAAAAY!", hands waving joyously in the air. She frantically scrambles into her seat, more exultant shouting, much banging of the tray, hollering and pointing, etc. etc. Can you imagine anything more fulfilling to feeding someone so astonishingly enthusiastic and appreciative? I come up with treats just so I can watch her jump up and down, wave her hands, and shout hooray!

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Yesterday, we sat at the kitchen table together, eating pink pudding. Nobody else in the family loves homemade pudding like I do, and here at last I found my bosom pudding-mate right here in my very own home. We sat at the table, two matching girls, each with a spoon in hand, eating from the same bowl while we watched a little TV show. With every bite, Zoe giggled and looked over up at me with a toothy, pudding-cheeked grin. I grinned back, probably nearly as pudding-cheeked and certainly just as thrilled. Just us girls, sittin' at the table, enjoying being together.

Of course eventually Jed showed up, declared that he LOVED pudding (though he had always turned his nose up at it before), shoved Zoe to the side and shouted that he wanted a DIFF-RENT show and well, the moment ended. But for a short, glorious 30 minutes, it was me and my little best girly.

I'm finally starting to experience the joy of having a daughter, a little female soul-mate and friend. I was surprised at how much I thoroughly deep-down enjoyed that time with just Zoe, and surprised as well at how many memories of my childhood it brought back, of me and my mommy curled up on the couch, eating some tasty treat and watching some silly TV show and just enjoying being together. Rockford Files and Top Ramen, anyone?