After she’s done on the toilet, I help her wash her hands and brush her teeth, an act that has her blushing and whining that she’s a Big girl and she knows how to do all these things on her own. And she absolutely does—I just don’t care.
She’smyLittle girl and I’m going to treat her as such.
Once we’re both freshened up, I take her to her bedroom where I stored all the new clothes we bought for her yesterday. “I was thinking maybe we’d go out to the park, go for a little hike today. What do you think, babygirl?”
“Okay, Mommy!”
Apparently I’ve been forgiven for my antics earlier this morning, because she’s all happy smiles and giggles as I dress her in a pair of denim overalls and a shirt that has the word “Princess” detailed on the front in glittering pink rhinestones.
She does fuss a bit when I put her hair up in pigtails, but a swat to her bottom calms her right down.
When we’re both dressed and ready for our hike, I snap a picture of her and a selfie of the two of us together to send to Ethan.
Sloane:Taking our babygirl to the park! We miss you, Daddy!
Satisfiedthat we’ll both be on his mind the rest of the day, I tuck my phone into my pocket and get to work packing supplies for our hike.
Including plenty of water and juice for my babygirl.
The drive to the particular park I chose for our adventure is long, plenty long enough for me to push a full bottle of water on her before we even park the car.
“Wait for Mommy to come let you out, baby,” I remind her as I kill the engine and reach for my door handle.
From the corner of my vision, I see her roll her eyes. “I’m a Big girl, Mommy, remember?”
I don’t bother to correct her. Or to try and stop her when she unbuckles her own seatbelt and shoves open her car door. I simply take my time, gathering the backpack with our supplies before making my way around the car.
“Mia Grace!” I make sure to put plenty of surprise in my voice, as if finding her standing beside the car is a shock to me and not a completely expected event. “What did Mommy tell you about waiting?”
Color creeps into her cheeks as she drops her gaze to the ground. Christ, she’s so fucking cute in her overalls and her blonde curls gathered into those two pigtails on either side of her head. “Sorry, Mommy.”
“You’re certainly going to be. As soon as we find a private enough spot, Mommy is going to peel those overalls off you and take a switch to your naughty little bottom.”
Head jerking up, she stares at me in shock… and hunger. There’s no mistaking the excitement dancing in her hazel eyes even as she begins to beg. “No, Mommy, please! I’ll be good, I promise!”
Twining my fingers with hers, I tug her toward the path. “You had your chance to be good, little girl, and you chose to disobey Mommy instead.”
“It was just a little naughty!”
She’s right. In the grand scheme of things, opening her own car door is a minor offense. It didn’t put her in any danger or damage our relationship in any way.
But I’m still going to punish her. Because she’s mine and I can.
After a few minutes of walking, I reach for the bottle of water I tucked into the side pocket of the backpack and hand it to her. “Don’t forget to drink your water, baby. Don’t want you getting dehydrated on our walk.”
“I’m so full of water already,” she whines, but she takes the bottle with a sigh and flips open the lid to guzzle it down.
“Good girl.” I punctuate my praise with a squeeze of her hand. “Thank you for listening.”
I don’t think I’ll ever tire of seeing the way her cheeks go pink at my praise. “How far is our hike, Mommy?”
“Not too far, baby. It’s about a mile to the waterfall and then back.”
Her shocked gasp rings out in the otherwise quiet woods. “A waterfall! I wanna see!”
“We will,” I promise her with a laugh when she tries to run ahead, dragging me with her. “But we need to pace ourselves, babygirl, so slow down.”
She slows with an exaggerated sigh, falling back into step beside me. For a long while, we walk together, hand in hand,pausing every now and then for my babygirl to exclaim over an animal or a pretty plant.
