Strawberry Memories and Baby

When my daughter was less than one year old, I bought her three strawberry shortcake dolls. She loved them so much and called them “Oh baby” when she was looking for them. I spent the rest of the summer stopping the car at every yard sale I saw, searching for more. 

She ended up with about 6 of them, by the end of that summer. She always knew how many she had, even though she could not count…well, she did not know the numbers. She would always look for the last one, if she was missing one in her hand. 

I still remember when I handed her two dolls and she was upset and began searching for the third one. I was surprised that she knew how many she should have, because she was just a baby. But she certainly did know. 

Happy Mess

When my kids were little they used to worry if they spilled something.  So, I used to “accidentally” spill something on myself, in front of them, and say “Look Mama is a mess!”

“But Mama is a happy mess because I am happy to have you!”

This was my way of seperating their idea of happiness from making a mistake. I wanted them to know that they could be happy in general,  even if things went wrong in the moment.

They thought this was very funny. Anytime I spilled something,  either by accident or on purpose,  they would laugh happily and say, “Look! Mama is a happy mess!  She is happy because she has me!”

I remember once being at the grocery store, in the check out aisle, and I dropped something.

My daughter quickly looked up at the cashier and said, ” That’s my Mama! She is a Happy Mess!”

The cashier looked a bit puzzled and my daughter was smiling.

Then my daughter said to the cashier, “I drop and spill things too. And then I am a Happy Mess, just like Mama.”