Fly Away

Lily Ruth gave me a thoughtful look and said 'Oooh, Mama! Uth two bi-pees!' - Bi-pees is Lily Ruth for baby wipes - I dutifully handed over the wipes 'One... Two...' She immediately shook them out, flung one over each shoulder and began to zoom around Starbucks exclaiming 'Uth WINGS!' followed by a muttering of 'flap, flap... flap flap, flap... WINGS!'

That girl can really fly. Hair floating, elbows flapping, eyes alight. Her joy is contagious. Her smile lifts spirits. Her imagination transforms whatever room she's in.

We came back to earth later when we left the museum. She announced 'NO CARSEAT!' at the top of her lungs and her tiny body went rigid. The top of her head went hot and moist as it does when she's about to loose her temper. I went ahead and lost mine first. I slammed her door, huffed into the driver's seat and announced 'Mama is VERY angry right now.' Productive. She putzed around the back seat for a while as I fumed, returned texts and ignored her. Then she crawled into the front seat, gave me her under-the-lashes grin and said 'Uth push buttons' as she proceeded to touch every button on my console. I felt a wave of irritation begin to crest. It receded abruptly as she crawled into my lap and let her whole body melt into mine in our familiar pattern. Happy contentment flowed from her and into me as she giggled about driving the car and we made silly car noises.

Drive on, Angel Girl. We'll get there soon enough.