Da Goddess

Sometimes all that glitters really is gold.

And this time, it happens to be 24k.

talented Leanne chose my story and photo of Mojo as this week’s graphite portrait winner. The story? I know I’ve shared it here before, but here it is again:

Gotta share a story about Mojo 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 Mo’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.

And about that “adventure”: when I talked to Mojo the other day, she was still feeling pretty rough. Most worrisome were the memory and concentration issues. Because she was let out of the hospital so quickly, I doubted it was related to the concussion, but more likely a result of the meds she’s been taking. But still, it worried me. So when I talked with my brother-in-law yesterday, he said she’s doing much better and the real test of how well she’s doing is by her humor. Sound familiar? It’s coming back. Some of it is very sarcastic, which is a wonderful sign.

It feels right that Leanne’s doing this portrait right around the same time I’m hearing this great news. It’s all glittery tonight.

Contented sigh.