Sure, we play. Sure we read and read and read together. We go fun places. We bake together. I sing her songs every night. We play dress up and act out The Wizard of Oz. I tell her at least 15 times a day that I love her. I kiss her to death. She knows she is loved. She's my buddy. My best little friend. She's my right-hand girl.
Yet one day changed me. No matter how shitty of a mom I am, there was the day that I made my girl's dreams come true. At least I'll always have that.
But before we get into the best day ever, lets talk about my quirky daughter a bit shall we? Lets not forget the wide range of odd things she has been obsessed with over the years. Nutcrackers. Mr. Big Guy. Stop signs. Wizard of Oz.
Enter kangaroos. I'm not entirely sure how she first learned about them, but lets just say, in true Millie form, once she heard about this animal...she was hooked. It started innocently enough, "Mom! Did you know that kangaroos have a pouch?!" Then she started learning all about them, and informing people of basic facts, "Did you know that this muscle kangaroos like to kick box? They puff out their chests and scratch their chests and then they punch!" "They use their big strong tail as a kickstand to kick the other kangaroos!" "Did you know that they call their babies Joeys!?"
She knew they were from a far away place called Australia. I'm not entirely sure how she got the idea in her head, but apparently Australia is a whole other planet. If you ask her what she wants to be when she grows up she will promptly answer, "I want to be an astronaut so I can go to the hot planet Australia and get a kangaroo!"
My favorite part of her obsession was the way she played kangaroo. She was always the momma kangaroo and her little doll Jasmine (yes she is also obsessed with princesses like most girls her age) became her "precious baby kangaroo." Jasmine stopped wearing clothes, because she is clearly a kangaroo, and found a place in Millie's shirt. And that is where she has resided for nearly a year now. If you accidentally refer to her baby as Jasmine, she will quickly correct you, "It's not Jasmine. It's my precious baby kangaroo."
We played games where Millie would ask me to be the momma kangaroo, hold my arms out and she would hop into my pouch. She gets an ornament every Christmas, so of course, Etsy provided a custom-made kangaroo ornament.
For Valentine's Day she received a special kangaroo necklace, complete with her birthstone. Precious baby kangaroo even joins us on vacations...but fear not...she's secured in the carseat.
Santa even brought her a kangaroo stuffed animal for Christmas. Complete with a baby that you can take out of the pouch. Did this replace her precious baby? Of course not.
Millie's favorite letter is, yes, you guessed it "K!" She has an animal memory game. Forget about putting the kangaroo match inside the game. Nope, that belongs in her special drawer, or propped up on her night stand, "so they can watch me sleep".
It's serious business, loving kangaroos in the Youkstetter household. I keep expecting this phase to pass but we are nearly a year into this. And I love it.
Millie has asked often to see a kangaroo. I had to regretfully inform her that our zoo doesn't have a kangaroo. But maybe we can make a trip to San Diego ("Seth we really need to take her to the San Diego zoo this year") and see one there?That was the plan. We would try and make it there someday. Hopefully her kangaroo obsession would be in-tact at that time.
I talk about my kids a lot. I'm sure I drive everyone crazy with my Millie stories. The other day I was at a work event. A donor and I were discussing our little 4-year-olds and how funny they are. I mentioned that Millie was crazy about kangaroos. My donor says, "Oh how funny. My little girl got to meet a therapy kangaroo at the VA nursing home last week."
WHATTTTT??
When I told this to Seth he said, "Oh come on Becky. You were drunk at that event (partially true). There is not a therapy kangaroo!" I swore I heard correctly.
Sure enough, thanks to google I quickly found out that there is a therapy kangaroo. And it resides just down the street from my office. BEST. NEWS. EVER. The following Monday I called, "Hi. I heard you have a therapy kangaroo. And I hate to even ask this, but my little girl is 100% obsessed with kangaroos. Is there anyway I can bring her by sometime to see it?"
Much to my excitement they agreed!
I was so excited I couldn't stand it. I tried to wait and tell Millie the day of, or the day before. But no, I told her a fully 6 days before we were set to go. Her reaction went exactly the way I hoped. She screamed and laughed and clapped and yelled, "Mom! I can't wait to bring it home as my pet!"
Wait what? Oh no. No no no no no.
"Oh honey, we don't get to keep it. We just get to go and visit it. And pet it!" Of course she broke down into hysterics as I desperately tried to backpedal and convince her how awesome the visit would be. Ha!
She calmed down and was still very excited to go.
The big day finally came. Can I just say that this was the best "good behavior" tool I have ever had in my arsenal? Anytime she started to act up I could casually say, "I guess you don't want to see the baby kangaroo after all" and she would promptly get in line.
We arrived at the nursing home walked excitedly down the hall. I admit I was nervous. I was nervous that it was going to be a huge let-down for her. I was worried she would be scared. I was worried that they owner/staff would be annoyed that we were there, not to visit our grandparent, but to see the damn kangaroo. Yet, it turns out I had nothing to worry about. Absolutely nothing. Millie was smitten.
Little baby Lulu was just 17 weeks old and was so tiny and sweet. The owner was incredible to Millie. She let her hold her. She got to see her hop around a bit. And she was told she could come back anytime to visit. Because apparently it lives there 5 days a week.
I got big hugs from Millie that night. Big hugs. She was so happy. On the way home from our 30 minute visit I asked Millie what was better, when Santa came and brought presents, or when we got to visit the baby kangaroo. She didn't miss a beat and happily exclaimed, "Holding the kangaroo!"
And that was the day that I made my kid's dream come true. No matter how crappy of a mom I may be, at least I'll have that day. At least I can look back fondly on the day we met a kangaroo. When she's 16 and claims I don't give her anything I can say, "Not true. I gave you time with a baby kangaroo. I freaking make magic happen kid!"
At least I'll have that day. No matter how hairy things may get.
Precious baby kangaroo.....she kind of looks like Jasmine too.....
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