Out Of The Same Pie Hole Last Week

It's hard to believe that the same three-and-a-half-year-old who nonchalantly announces while coloring Dora, "I smell something yucky but I didn't poo-poo or fart" (there was broccoli on the stove for dinner) would whisper into my ear less than twenty-four hours later, "Julia, I feel like taking a match and lighting you up all over."  I asked her if she knew that that would be very painful and would hurt me THIS much?  As I sadly suspected, she nodded in the affirmative.

I refused to cringe when her impish smile stayed stubbornly plastered across her face.  It's downright scary witnessing firsthand the nasty limits of a growing child's mind.

And while I remain calm and even-voiced through all of the little girl's ups and downs, it shakes me the most when I think of her future.  Money can buy a lot of top-notch nannies and individual care, but there's a whole lot more that goes into grooming a quality miniature human being than that.