Two bandaid boo-boo

Just out the door at church on Sunday, Mandy takes a tumble (which is not unusual for our unusually clumsy girl) and scrapes up her knee in a spectacular manner. After getting all the tears dried and loading the kids in the car, I assure her that we will rush home and get her a bandaid. Then Dallin pipes up with, "I think it's going to need two bandaids." So Mandy has to one up him of course and declares, "No, my boo-boo needs three (while holding up three fingers for added emphasis) bandaids." When Dallin counters with a "No it doesn't" in his whiny little voice, Mandy shoots back with "It needs four bandaids". By the time we made it home, I think Mandy was absolutely sure that it was going to need something like 8 or 9 bandaids, but once I showed her the cute little princess bandaids, I was able to convince her that only two were needed. So I patched her up and then our little drama queen decided that she couldn't walk because of her boo-boo so I carried her to the rocking chair. Then she began to whimper and said in her most pitiful voice, "Mommy, I want you to hold me." By this time, Layton was demanding I hold him because I had already spent so much time (all of 5 minutes) not paying attention to him. It was one of those moments where I would have given anything to have two of me so that each of my children could have a lap to sit on and a set of arms around them. I asked Mandy to wait a minute and then found some toys to distract Layton with.

Mandy was watching my every move and the second I put Layton down she said (again in her most pitiful voice), "Now you're not holding baby, so you can hold me."

I obliged her and held her in the rocking chair. She then said, "Mommy, do the song."

"What song?" I asked.

"The hmm hmmm hmm song," Mandy said. In other words, she wanted me to hum a lullaby to her the way that she has heard me do so many times to Layton.

Then she pulled my hand around her, placed it on her back, and ordered "Do this," as she moved my hand up and down.

So as she sat in my lap and laid her head on my shoulder, I hummed her a lullaby, patted her back, and rocked her in the glider. I sometimes forget how she is still so shortly removed from being a baby herself. I guess she needed to be a baby for just a little while that day and I really didn't mind playing along. Especially since after just a minute or two she raised her head and said, "Mommy, I so love you."

I so love you too, my little Mandy Moo.