Fickle

There's really no way to sugarcoat it -- my girl is fickle and that's all there is to it. She appears to be gearing up for a life of heartbreaking-for-sport with the way she toys with your emotions. Oh, I could list the hundreds of games she plays with the hearts of those who love her, but for today I'll focus on one specific area: her coyness around family members.

Take her grandmothers. These two sweet women want nothing more than to shower Miss Mouse with love and affection, and yet she stubbornly maintained aloof for what seemed like eons. Why, Mouse? Why??

First, let's take my parents. Miss Mouse has been a grandpa's girl from her earliest days, but she held out on my mother for quite a while. We had several rocky "visit beginnings" as my girl cowered in my arms pretending she had never seen my mother before in her life (a fact we know to be false). That's all over now, happily, and "Nana" is one of Mousie's favorite people -- as evidenced by the high-pitched shrieks she gives whenever she sees the picture of her grandmother we have tacked to the refrigerator.

But more recently, we've had to go through a similar affair with Josh's mom, whom Miss Mouse has seen less of. Nancy was in town yesterday and my cruel child paid her very little attention and only grudgingly agreed to a one-armed hug before bed. Meanwhile, she cheerfully chirped out requests for Aunt Joyce (Nancy's sister), just to pour salt in the wounds.

And yet. And yet. This morning, immediately upon waking, Miss Mouse started asking for "Grandma." Repeatedly. Incessantly. Plaintively.

What gives, Mouse? Absence makes the Mouse grow fonder? So much caprice for one so young.