A few months ago, I was walking to the beach with the Kidlet, and we happened upon a jewelry store. I love unique rings and one silver ring shaped like a corset caught my eye. I went in and tried it on, but after looking at the price tag, deemed it a little too pricey for a fun ring. We walked by it a few more times in the following weeks and each time I stopped and looked at it a little wistfully, but walked away, choosing to spend my money on necessities.

A few weeks ago, the Kidlet started conspiring with my roommate about something. She wanted him to take her to Main Street on a secret mission. She wrote him a note and stuck it under his door and in a loud whisper, told him not to let me see it. In the next days, she continuously asked if he would take her and then seemingly this secret mission was forgotten about.

Last night, she spent a good amount of time meticulously counting her money to the exact penny, “$19.76,” she proclaimed and asked my roommate throughout the day if she could “have a word” with him. She convinced us to take her to the weekly Farmer’s Market and then said to my roommate in a loud whisper so that I could not hear, “bring some money in case I don’t have enough.” In the car ride there, she tried to keep her secret as best as an excited 8-year-old could. From her instructions for me to go off and “look around on my own,” to her seemingly “random” question about my ring size, (“I’m asking for no particular reason…”), I put together that she wanted to go buy the ring I wanted with “her” money that she’d been carefully saving and counting for months.

I don’t know what I ever did to be lucky enough to be her Mama.