A girl and her purse

With 8 year old Téa in the backseat of our car (minus her twin 
brother this time) we were on our way home from Cafe Rio. 

As we were driving along, Den and I were busy talking, 
while she was reading her bird watching book 
she'd had in her purse. 

I was talking to Den about a friend of mine who is 41 and 
expecting her first baby. How she and her husband, and her entire 
extended family and friends (including me!) are just in awe over 
excitement for this baby boy to arrive soon. 

I told Den, 
"Can you imagine the love that will surround this 
baby!? He will have SO much attention. Oh my goodness. 
They will probably never lay him down!!"

That's when I heard Téa come to life from the back seat. With a bit 
of accusing tone, she asked me, "Well what about you Grandma? 
What if you were to have a baby?"

"I'm too old for that."

"I know. But what if you did have a baby?"

"Uh...well...okay" (not knowing where we were going with this) 

"Would YOU lay your baby down??"she slammed right at me.

"Uh, no, I guess I wouldn't."

"Well then!!" 

Like we thought it was a bad thing to hold a baby so much. She was 
trying to stand up for them.....which I thought was SO endearing, 
and SO sweet. 

Especially since she doesn't even know the people 
we were talking about.

We have noticed that Téa has become 

more Téa since she got her first real purse.

Not only does she try to protect people she doesn't even know, 

but she's become very protective of me as well....

Like later on that evening while I was on the phone,

she was across the room, but when she heard me say to my friend, 
"Okay, I will try to remember that..." she quickly pulled out some 
sticky notes from her purse 

and waved them in front of my eyes and gently whispered to me, 
"Grandma use this to write it down!" 

Or right before eating at Cafe Rio she gave me the choice of 3 hand 
sanitizers she also had in her purse,

"Here Grandma, which one do you want to use?"


On the other hand, 
give a girl a purse and look what happens....

 If I worried that night about her suddenly growing up...

the thought disappeared when she wouldn't even consider being alone for a few minutes while I took a shower. 

Nope, she decided to take her bird book down the hall 
and hang out with Grandpa. 

And later on when her sister Laurynn came by to pick her up...

the contents of Téa's purse were all over the floor.

I found that rather comforting. 
There's still lots of little girl left in our Téa.