A Phase

Like most children her age, Mariah goes through phases. Most of the time I am singing the Hallelujah Chorus at the end of one of her phases, because to be honest, they are often not my favorite. But she recently went through one that I was very sad to see go.

My good friend Morgan watched Mariah for me one day. When I came to pick her up  Mariah was clutching Horton, a little elephant finger puppet, puff flower and all (I'm sure there was a speck as well with a whole who-village, but obviously I couldn't see that). Anyone who knows Morgan has seen her love/obsession/weakness for babies. When she saw me eyeing the puppet she quickly informed me that there was no way she was going to take it away from Mariah. It was her gift to her. Apparently Mariah was in love with Horton.

As Mariah and I left the house I chuckled at what a softy Morgan was and figured poor Horton would be ditched before we even got into the car. But I was wrong. Mariah loved on Horton that whole day and the next few days that followed. I even let her take Horton with her for one of her naps and she fell asleep with her face smashed down on the poor pachyderm. If she hadn't seen him for a while she would grab him and snuggle him up to her cheek. It was pretty heart warming.

Not the best quality photos; I took them with my rinky-dink ipod touch...but her charm makes up for the blurriness.

But as I said before, her love faded. I don't know what caused her to become disenchanted but one day I handed him to her, expecting her little show of love, and she promptly threw him to the ground and began playing with something else. And so it ended.

 I don't know whether I should warn the men she dates someday or not...