One More Stocking

I see her at least once or twice a week, but every time she visits it’s like she’s a different kid. At fourteen months and ten days, I guess that’s to be expected. At the moment she has red-gold hair, bright eyes and four sharp teeth – two on top and two on the bottom. She sings pretty much non-stop, just one song - Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. She rearranges my neatly alphabetized movie collection, helps herself to the dog food, pulls everything out of the under-the-counter kitchen cupboards, and threatens the Christmas tree. She’s getting good at scooting up and down the stairs, but I still hold my breath every time she does it. She likes to play my piano, especially the notes at the very bottom of the keyboard. She loves to grab my dogs by their beards and yell, “Woof!” at them. Amazingly, they don’t seem to mind. Maybe it’s because they know she’ll feed them whatever we’re trying to get her to eat.