Last summer we had the pleasure of having our nieces stay at the lake house with us for several weeks. Both girls were in their early teenage years and had the usual interests...beauty, hair, nails, & fashion, all of which Senia Mae just ate up, because she was and still is, the ultimate diva. If it was shiny and spectacular, then the answer was yes, she loved it, and watching her stare at them with awe and amazement was absolutely adorable.

It was a rainy afternoon and we had stopped at Walmart on the way back from a bowling trip, trying to ease the blahs of not being able to be out in the boat (rainy days in the summer can be absolute torture to our guests, especially kids). Senia Mae was wanting to hang lazily from my arms, in hopes that I would drag her like a corpse through the aisles of the store. I am sure that every parent knows when their child gets to this point of tiredness that you have about a forty five minute window before the walls start crumbling down. Letting the girls know that our time was running out, they picked out some individually packaged chocolate facial masks and decided to make it a spa, popcorn, and movie night.

As soon as we got into the house Kim and I started on Senia Mae's bedtime routine as the girls went to the downstairs bathroom to apply their facial masks. About fifteen minutes later Savannah was standing in the living room letting her face dry. Senia Mae spotted her from a distance and stopped dead in her tracks, petrified of the sight of Savannah. Apparently she had no idea what was going on and assumed we were doing something harmful to our niece. We hadn't thought to explain it to her, it never even crossed my mind that it would look frightening, and it was all I could do to peel her out from behind the sofa.

As I picked her up in my arms she looked at me with this expression of disgust and horror and shouted, "Momma, who put the diarrhea on Savannah's face, you or Mommy Kim?"

While I don't necessarily want my daughter to need extensive therapy for traumatic childhood events, it was hard to be empathetic and hold back the tears of laughter that immediately followed her crazy, yet ever so serious accusation. The house practically shook with all of us in stitches. When we finally got her calmed down enough to go to bed, she was still so appalled that she didn't want Savannah to come in her room or even read her a book (which means it is VERY serious). The following day it took Senia Mae all day before she would stop giving poor Savannah the stink eye! Who knew? :)