Mabel Molanphy

I am for­tu­nate to have a dear friend, Mandy, with whom I share a great deal of sim­i­lar­i­ties in gen­er­al life. For­tu­nate­ly, our daugh­ters are friends as well, so we get to hang out dur­ing the day, as well. At a late-after­noon park date, Mandy shared with me a won­der­ful arti­cle she had read about “hands-free mama” and one moth­er’s quest to put away tech­nol­o­gy and be a part of her chil­dren’s lives. Just, “be present.” http://www.handsfreemama.com/ I clicked over that night and was so touched by the sim­ple “about me” page. It res­onat­ed deep into my soul, and I decid­ed to put this into effort. I sent Mandy an email shar­ing with her the change of my day. (copied/pasted below for my memories).

Thank you for shar­ing about the hands-free mama. I found her arti­cle last night. W‑O-W. It real­ly spoke to me in a way that I need­ed. Phe­nom­e­nal. I worked real­ly hard at this today (doing some­thing different—Culvers—and even leav­ing my phone in the car the whole time). After we ate our french fries and ice cream, we played on the lawn for 30 min­utes. I just *know* if I’d had my phone, I would have texted you some­thing, called David, etc, etc, etc. None of it is *bad*, but it struck me of a won­der­ful talk about “good, bet­ter, best” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlhS7W6gtIc)—I *love* the ref­er­ence of when Mary and Martha were mak­ing din­ner for Christ, and how Martha was feel­ing a lit­tle frus­trat­ed that Mary was lis­ten­ing to the Sav­ior instead of clean­ing up). The blog reit­er­ates it—the desire to write a blog, chat with friends, etc. are all won­der­ful endeav­ors. And yet, the things I could lose (time and bond­ing with my daugh­ter). Today—it was a dif­fer­ent day. I spent more time with Mabel—mentally. It made a huge difference.

What I’m try­ing to say…thank you for telling me about that. 🙂

Rebec­ca 🙂

As I said the friend­ship goes beyond myself and Mandy, as Mabel and Lex­ie have been friends for two years (this month!). It’s been a great two years, tru­ly. Mandy shared this with me (via chat)

10:35 PM Mandy: One more thing

me: yah?

Mandy: Paul put Lex­ie to bed; She had a naked dolly

me: okay?

Mandy: SHE asked Paul, Did Mabel take the clothes off my dolly?

me: you are KIDDING me!!BWAHAHAHAHA. That’s so funny.

Mandy: (which she did..at the paint­ing Playdate)

me: she did?? HAHAHAHAH

Mandy: Paul was like.…no. So Lex­ie said who did? Paul said I don’t know…maybe Lydia

me: HAHAH

Mandy: But any­way, when he men­tioned it to me I was like, Yeah, Mabel always takes the clothes off that doll. HE could­n’t believe Lex­ie knew and he was telling her she was wrong. What I want to know is how Lex­ie knows that! Maybe she saw it

me: or Mabel told her? Funny!

Mandy: I only know bc I saw her do it a few times and usu­al­ly after you’ve been here, that doll is naked

me: BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAH. Sorry

Mandy: SO I total­ly real­ize it..but was sur­prised Lex­ie knew. No no..just thought it was too cute

me: I love it. I LOVE the obser­van­cy of children

Mandy: I know! I think I’ll ask Lex­ie tomor­row how she knew it was Mabel

me: seri­ous­ly. I want to know.

Mandy: I want to know if she saw her orrr IF she just KNOWS Mabel 😉

me: LOL

Mandy: That would be sweet if she just knew, Like I just know

me: I know. It would be. to “know” her friend 🙂

Mandy: 🙂   Maybe I should­n’t ask and we can just pre­tend it’s because they are friends

me: 🙂

Mandy: When real­ly it’s prob­a­bly that she was stand­ing right there as it happened!Probably yelling at her to stop!

me: LOL; keep the hap­py thoughts 🙂

Mandy: We’ve got the best of both worlds..if they are kind, it’s because they are friends…If they fight, they are sis­ters. Good­night friend. 😉

me: LOL!! True that! Good night, friend!!

*****the next day…an email from Mandy*****

Zero prompt­ing by me…this is how the dis­cus­sion went down.

ME: “Lex­ie, Dad­dy told me you asked him if Mabel took your dol­ly’s clothes off.  She did!  How did you know that Mabel took your dol­ly’s clothes off?”

LEXIE: “I know dat because she was my friend.”

ME: “Did you know because you saw her?  Or because she was your friend?”

LEXIE: “because she was my friend.”

(heart.melting.)

********

What a fun mem­o­ry. For me, and Mabel.