Elisablog: Just Like Mommy.

I bought this book for Elisabeth when she was around 2.

It's a super cute story about the little girl saying everything that she has like her Mommy.

I have a necklace.

I have earrings.

Just like Mommy.

Elisabeth loved it. There's one page that talks about having curls just like Mommy (which Elisabeth totally does).

Now I read it to Julia. It's one of the books we read while she's sitting on the toilet trying to tinkle. Julia loves it just as much as Elisabeth did.

The last page of the book reads:

I have a pocketbook.

I'm going to work.

Just like Mommy.

Yesterday when I was reading it to Julia, she kept pointing to the mommy and the little girl and saying, "No, they go home."

Every time I read it, she kept saying that they were going home.

And then it dawned on me.

I looked at Julia and said, "Julia, does your Mommy go to work?"

"No. You stay home." And then she smiled that gigantic silly smile where she shows all of her teeth and smiles so hard her eyes disappear into her squishy round cheeks.

This simple little board book story meant two totally different things to my girls.

You see, Elisabeth did go to work with me. When I bought this book, I was working at her daycare as a teacher in the room next to her. We lived in DeKalb and Evan was going to law school.

Here we are at The Growing Place when Elisabeth was almost four (with her bestest friend, Avery, who would turn four the day before Elisabeth).

Elisabeth at the age of 2 (and younger) was used to Mommy working. I'd been working since she was born. I graduated from college when she was only 6 months old. Then I worked full-time while Evan finished undergrad and then when he was in law school. She would wake up in the mornings and go with me to work every day. She would see me in the hallways and give me kisses before it was nap time (which she never napped for). Her teachers were my friends and would come over to our house to hang out sometimes.

I got to see her on the playground and knew all of her friends and their parents. When she was hurt, they'd just holler over the partitions that divided the classrooms (there were no real walls in the day care because they were all open classrooms) and I'd go make sure she was okay.

And when I got a new job at a private school, Elisabeth knew I was still a teacher, just at a different school.

But, Julia?

Well, I did teach for a little bit when she was an infant, but she doesn't remember. Evan stayed home with her for the first 6 months she was born and then when we were living with Keith and Jana in Pekin, my mom would watch her at Kyle's house with Ethan the days I substituted.

But, she doesn't remember any of that. All she knows is that Daddy goes to work, Elisabeth goes to school and Mommy stays home with Julia.

It's funny for me to think about how my girls have different views of me. Elisabeth still tells people that I'm a teacher but that I stay home now and take care of Julia. She remembers me teaching and going to my classroom on the weekends when I needed to get things done. She remembers meeting my students and my co-workers. She remembers me teaching.

Julia's going to remember being at home with me. Running errands together and visiting my friends for lunch. She's going to remember picking Elisabeth up from school and going to the Y all the time. She's going to remember that Mommy was only a mommy.