Twinklette: My Sassy Advocate

I knew Twinklette would make a fabulous big sister, and she is an even better one than I expected. She is absolutely in love with her new baby (let's call her Tiny Twinklette), and has never shown a bit of jealousy or resentment, nor has she even shown the slightest notion that her new baby might take attention away from her. She has met Tiny Twinklette with nothing but love, adoration, and goodwill, and I could not be prouder.

I never doubted that she would be just fine with the transition, but I didn't anticipate the way her smart mouth might be of service to me in my new role as Infant Mama 2.0. She is totally the kind of advocate and ally I need: one with a three-year-old sense of sass and absolutely no filter.

I needed to get out of the house today, so in an unprecedented gesture, I suggested to Mr. Twinkle that we drop by the inlaws' house to say hi. (This tells you how desperate I was to see the outside world). We loaded up the family wagon and drove over there...it was so nice to get out, it made them happy, and it was better than having them at our house getting all up in my bidness.

So Tiny Twinklette was wearing this personalized hat with her name on it, and it is a little too big for her head, but I put it on her anyway because it's cute and it does the job. MIL was holding her, and the hat fell off.

Me: Oh, I know that hat is a little big. You can take it off her if you want to.

MIL doesn't take it off, because meddling old matronly types are always obsessed with babies' heads being covered by hats, even in the controlled climate of the modern living room.

Twinklette (authoratatively): You need to listen to my mommy.

In that moment, I felt all the vindication of three years' worth of slights just melt away. Twinklette is the only person on earth who can totally tell off my biggest doubter and critic. Of course I pretended not to hear her, but I was smiling smugly on the inside.

MIL (defensively and with a sourness I'd not seen her use before with Twinklette): Well, I doubt Tiny Twinklette wants to have a cold head. Do you think she wants to have a cold head?

But she took the hat off anyway.