Sucker

Riley's at that age where she is so observant of everything we do... and she wants to do it too. We hear her say "I do it" on a regular basis. She watches us so much that I really need to be more mindful of the things I do and the things I say. I know there are some things that we can't hide forever like my husband's and my bad habit of cleaning our ears with Q-tips. I don't look forward to her seeing that one and attempting it... and us trying to explain why she can't do it (but that mommy and daddy can, of course).

So lately when I put on my mascara Riley wants to as well. She'll ask me for "sucker" (which took me a bit to figure out what she was referring too - it's how she says 'mascara'). I just happen to have two mascara tubes so I can hand her one while I'm still working on mine. Luckily, she hasn't figured out the key to putting mascara on is that you need to take the cap off... and hopefully, once she does, she'll understand that we won't let her actually wear it for a long, long time.

As you can see her technique is a little off as she insists on stabbing herself in the eye.

I can't help but cherish this time with her and know that it won't last forever. She seems to be growing up in leaps and bounds and I know that before long we could be fighting about me not letting her wear makeup yet, who she dates, what grades she gets, and a ton of other issues. I love that right now she sees what we do as things to strive for doing herself, and that she is able to do more and more on her own. But I also don't want her to grow up too fast. And I can dream that hopefully, she will always look up to us and want to be like mommy and daddy, right?