Gems from The Divine Miss N

1.  She believed me when I told her there were also "Sad Meals" at McDonald's containing an old tennis shoe and a piece of concrete.

2.  So we had the Happy Meals instead.  And I sat in the booth with her and started to devise a road trip involving lots and lots of Happy Meals--not so much for the nutritional content--mainly the emotional one.

3.  "I feel better when you feel better, Mommy."  She understands so well what I mean about emotions passing between us like a virus and she reminds me of my own part in this.

4.  Bedtime stories on the fly:  Laughing about "Jeremy Hat" (a hat with legs) who went to Hat Day at preschool only to be blown into the sky while Mrs. B chased after him with a butterfly net and the rest of the kids ran around with their arms in the sky screaming, "Jeremy Hat!  Jeremy Hat!  Don't get blown away like that!"

5.  "I made up a song about making sure the tag goes in the back:  Tag in the back.  Sit on your back.  Put it in the back.  And that's how it goes in the time when you are dressed.  Oh YEAH!"

6.  She still picks up a rock from the ground when we go somewhere, hands it to me and says, "Here's your Special Day rock."  I don't know where she got this, but I have a lot of rocks now.  And I love each one of them.

7.  And we are trying, both of us, to show each other how much we love the other through this daily cooperation.  To understand the other's will.

8.  Watching her problem solve the way I do--like McGeyver with a surplus of scotch tape and yarn.

9.  How she leads us in prayer before each meal (she loves the shark prayer) and her secret conversation with Jesus overheard while I make pumpkin muffins.  The animation and love in her voice so clear, so uncluttered.

10.  [                                                                    ]