Papaya Mom

She squealed to me in shock, horror, excitement.

We lay on our backs in the cool grass in a crowd of strangers. Up, down, left, right, climb on Mom and Dad all night she did, our little toddling firefly. She wanted to ride on our knees, lie between us and sometimes cuddle into our warm sides and pretend to “pleep.” She says “sleep” now but Adventure Dad and I loved “pleep” so much we now say it - Awesome Parenting 101 - teach your kid to hold on to childlike speech patterns. She grabs our cheeks and looks straight into our eyes to correct us; “sleep Mommy, close your eyes.”

But I’m looking at the stars baby….looking up in the sky. Want to name them with me? Lay here at my side and we’ll name the sky. See over there? Thats the Milky Way….like when Daddy spills his milk, do you think it might drip out of the sky? “Noooo Mommy” she says with the silliest tone, as if I’d suggested that she lives on the moon. Over there - that bright star, that’s Tutu and what is that star next to her? “Bumpa.” And do you see the Grandma and Grandpa stars over there? What is the Grandpa star doing? “Tractor Mom, Grandpa rides the tractor.” And what do you want to call those stars? Maybe Dora and Diego? “Dora and Boots Mom, Dora is by Boots.” Ah, I have been corrected.

Do you see the stars shooting? Not the airplanes (damn Dulles for being so close tonight) It is like they are playing tag! There! There! It’s okay if you don’t see it honey, lets name more stars. Over there - is that star named Pono? and Aute? “Yes!”

Meteor showers with a toddler - easy? No. Worth it? Yes.

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