Feeling a bit puny today. But I have a very attentive (rather, insistent) sidekick. She has a way of making my eyes roll, my voice raise pitch, and my belly laugh. She’s like a headache and a pain reliever, both. At one point today I think she tapped me 20 times within an hour.

“I just have questions!”

Yeah. I do, too. Lots.

I had to lie down a bit to recoup. She came to check on me. Noticed I’ve been coughing and sneezing. She was concerned.

“Mama has a summer cold, I think.”

She zips away, then returns with her Baby Alive stethoscope. She climbs my tall bed and begins to listen to various body parts. Then off again, out of sight. I hear a little banging in the kitchen. I realize she’s emptying the K-cup filter. Next thing I know, she’s baby-stepping towards me with a mug of hot coffee. I sip. She asks another question.

“How’s your coffee?”

She knows how I like it by now, with a splash of half-n-half. All the children know how to make coffee for mom.

She slips away, yet again, and returns with a little cupped hand, presenting me with a Star Wars gummy vitamin, and a chewable vitamin C tablet. I take them in. Take her in. All her tender care of me. She truly is a nurturer, though she’s also the one to drive you to bed, dizzy. She makes me tired, but she also revives me.

Now she’s holding the hairbrush and she’s climbing behind me to pamper. It mostly just hurts, but I redirect her with the idea of braiding instead of brushing. She is happy to caretake. She really is something else. What that else is, remains to be seen. I just hope she stays wild and free, but within the boundary lines marked out for her.

“Tru Evelyn, my darling child. Tru Evelyn, you’ll drive me wild.”