Once again, your entries touched my heart and your photos made me smile. It took me a little longer to decide this time, it’s really hard to choose! I loved this story of Mojo (aka Miranda) as a baby, it really brought back floods of memories of similar experiences with my own daughters. Those times are so precious, and I think her story reminded me that I need to really keep those memories tucked away in a safe spot, and remember where I put them for future reference. I am really touched that after 15-16 years, DaGoddess tells the story like it happened just the other day, and then to see the beautiful young woman she is becoming – just tugs on my heartstrings in a mommy kind of way.

Here’s her story:

Gotta share a story about her that truly captures her unique brand of wackiness. You see, she was born that way and ’round about the time she was 14 or 15 months old, her sense of humor was already apparent. One Saturday morning — far too early, of course, I’d heard her stirring in her room and went in to get her. I changed her, grabbed her a cup of juice, and I brought her into bed with me. She took her usual few sips of juice, handed me her sippy cup, and curled up like she was ready to go back to sleep. I put the cup on the old drafting table next to the bed and curled myself around my sweet little child. A couple minutes of fidgeting later, she said, “dink, Mommy, dink!” which meant she wanted her drink. While I rolled over and reached for it, she was busy stealing my pillow. As I rolled back with the drink, I felt the absence of said pillow, and looked at her. She was lying on top of the pillow, very still, covers pulled up tight under her chin, eyes closed pretending to sleep. There was even an attempt at “snoring” for my benefit. And slowly, the impish grin spread across her face and the giggling started. Yes, my young toddler was a prankster! There was no way I could sleep after that. In fact, we got up to grab breakfast and play silly games the rest of the morning, after which I spent at least two hours calling family and regaling them with Miranda’s latest clever plot to make me laugh.

She’s sixteen now and very much still a goofball who loves playing jokes on family and friends. They’re never malicious, always done in the name of fun. Thankfully, after scaring us with her New Year’s adventures, she’s okay and will be back to pranking us in due time.

Congrats, DaGoddess, you’ll see your baby’s portrait on Monday!