Pages from the PastThat Prove I Was Always a Pitiful Mother...

Written on August 21, 1997 when Darcy was 25 months old:

Three nights ago, Mom called just as I was starting to fix supper. Since I didn't plan to stay on the phone very long, I didn't offer to call her back, but just took a few minutes out to talk with her right then. Seeing me on the phone, Darcy got extra whiney. Clinging to my leg she began to fuss about being hungry. Thinking to stall her for just a few minutes, I reached over to the stove where some cold butter beans were still sitting out from lunch-time. She hadn't liked them at lunch when they were fresh and warm, so I don't know why I thought she might like to snack on them now after they were cold and had been sitting out all day, but I rationalized that if she truly was about to faint away from hunger, that this would tide her over until supper! So, I scooped her out a bowlful and handed them to her as I continued talking on the phone. Darcy looked at them and shook her head, "No." But, in backing away from the bowl of horrid butter-beans, she released her death grip on my leg and disappeared from sight into the dining room. I was pleased with the peaceful quiet that ensued...that is until Grant came in and found what was absorbing all of her attention. Grant about had a conniption fit when seeing his wife on the phone yakking, he stepped into the next room and found his poor starving daughter greedily gulping down handful after handful of Purina Kitten Chow straight from the bag! She looked up happily and offered to share a handful of "cereal" with her dad, and was quite bewildered when he swooped down and took it all from her, including the nice full bag she had been dipping into! Needless to say, I felt thoroughly guilty, hung up the phone post-haste, and scrambled to fix my starving daughter a decent supper!


(Photo above is Darcy with her kitten, Roo...taken eleven years ago! Wasn't she such a cute little toddler? Hard to believe she is a teenager now!)