Polished

I figured something out. Maddy calls me Mama when she is being sweet.

Tonight while sitting in my room at my brand new (!) desk trying to get caught up on life Maddy rounded the corner and in her sweet little girl voice says “Mama, I wanna put polish on my nails. Can we polish my nails?”

Nail polish started for Maddy during potty training. Apparently to my little girl colorful toes was a motivator.

We had a rough day around here. My car battery died. Maddy spent a good portion of the day feeling very emotional and anxious. Therefore mommy spent the day feeling very emotional and anxious with her. Then while making dinner I looked down to see a puddle forming under near the cabinet to my right. I immediately thought my sweet girl standing on her step stool about 12 inches from the puddle had an accident. Then I realized she was dry, the stool was dry, the floor directly under her was dry. Then I noticed that the water was coming from under the cabinet.

Under the cabinet that shares a wall with the bathroom/laundry room.

Under the cabinet that shares a wall with the bathroom/laundry room where the washer was cycling through a load.

The same washer that had just been put back into the laundry room after finishing the tile.

Then the full realization hits. The washer is leaking. Crap. Oh crap. Oh crap. Ughhh!

To make a long story short the drain hose came out of the drain so the washer drained itself all over the bathroom floor, into the kitchen and subsequently down into the basement. Awesome really. The great laundry flood of 2011 is not really a big deal. It’s been mopped up and dried as best as we could. Every fan we own is now hopefully finishing the job. It’s no ones fault, even though I blame myself a little bit.

The point of sharing all of this is to remind myself just how much a few bonding moments with my sweet girl can reset my attitude and recatagorize the day. This evening after she went to bed I thought back through my day and remembered none of the hard bumps that knocked me around.

Mostly I remembered her placing each and every nail polish we own on the bathroom counter in a row to make her selection.

Then pairing a bright pink shade with a blue glitter polish to top it off.

I thought of her concentration as she watched me paint her nails and how she inhaled big deep breaths and blew and blew across her freshly painted finger, anxious to go show her daddy how fancy her fingers were.

I remembered how proud she was when her daddy noticed the pink with blue glitter swiped across her finger tips and told her how beautiful she looked.

All those rough moments today were rough, but not so rough they cannot be forgotten.

I’m just thankful I have a sweet girl to call me Mama and sweep all the negative away to replace it with bright shining positive.