Little miss observant

A few weeks ago, I got some new glasses. I have been wearing contacts pretty much 24/7 for the past 20 years, and I know it's not good for me. There were some funds left in our benefits account that had to be used up by year end, so I thought I would incite myself to wear my glasses more by buying some new ones.

I bought them at one of those 2-for-1 places, and got a pair of blue frames and a pair of lavender ones. The kids are not used to seeing me in glasses, and Mallory cannot stop talking about it when I have them on. Her favourite thing to do is discuss the colour of whichever pair of glasses I happen to be wearing at the time. "Are they... (big pause) blue glasses? Are they... (big pause) purple glasses?" She says it with a singsong lilt in her voice, one that completely melts my heart every time I hear it.

Yesterday was one of those days, the kind of day where work is fraught with problems, Chad has to go pick up the kids because I have to stay late, even though he still has a pile of work that he has to go back into the office to finish later, I come home to find that Mallory has spilled a sippy cup of milk all over the new couch (which is going to smell WONDERFUL in a couple of weeks' time, I am sure), then she gets marker on it after I question the wisdom of letting her get too close to the couch with it in her hand but let her do it anyway, and she kicks and screams and fights going to bed the whole gosh darn way, even though it is Thrusday and she is clearly exhausted. She wailed intermittently for quite some time after I put her to bed, and finally I went in to pull her sobbing little self out of the crib, wipe her nose and sit with her in the rocking chair for yet another cuddle.

And of course, as soon as I did, she turned to look up at me and said, "Are they blue glasses?", which made it completely worthwhile because I'm telling you, I do everything I can to encourage the glasses banter these days, I enjoy it so much. And she must know that, because when I had to get up with her in the middle of the night because she was crying again, even though every bone in my body wanted to stay tucked into my own bed, because I seem to suffer from some sort of insomnia that does not allow me to go to bed at a decent hour despite the fact that I have to get up in the morning, the first thing she said to me was, "No glasses now."