Sugar and Spice

Being a mother is like constantly looking into a mirror of your soul. Not just any mirror either, one of those pore-magnifying mirrors where every virtue – or lack thereof – is magnified to sometimes frightful proportion. I’d like to tell you that being a mother has brought out the best in me and, in some ways, it has. But it has also reflected back some glaring deficiencies. For example, being a mother has shown me that I have the potential for violence. Now, let me be clear (as a lawyer I should know that these words can so easily come back to haunt me and whatever jury they get put in front of will fail to see the irony that I intend by the statement), I am not nor have I ever been physically violent with anyone, including most especially Pumpkin. My hyperbolic statement was intended only to jump start my story about the park last weekend. Let me back up by saying Pumpkin loves the park – any park. She especially loves slides and steering wheels (“dwy-veen”). So there we are...

As you can see from the picture, Pumpkin is already trying to grow up way too fast – sitting in daddy’s chair and putting on daddy’s shoes. And believe you me, her grown-up-edness is more than shoe deep. As I think on her growing up (I admit, it’s almost as hard to imagine as the thought of ME being someone’s mom – I mean, aren’t I still a kid myself???), it just amazes me to realize that my little Pumpkin is soon going to have her own ideas, dreams and hopes, she is going to try and succeed, struggle and fail, she is going to win, lose, fall in love, get her heart broken. Those tiny hands will one day hold in wonder the tiny hands of her own sweet baby. Those tiny hands might also one day save the world, cure cancer, or hold a Grammy. The possibilities are truly endless. I admit, I often get lost in daydreams about what exactly Pumpkin will be when she grows up. I’ve decided that in addition to being a singer, a dancer, an artist, an author, an actress, a beauty queen, a rocket...