Who Loves You?

I tell Tiny and Buba that I love them many times throughout each day- in the morning when I’m getting them up and ready for the day, at naptime, at bedtime, when I leave to go to my part-time job, and whenever they run in for a quick hug or tickle while we’re playing. It’s not something I think consciously about. It just comes naturally. In fact, I wasn’t even aware of how often I say, “Mama loves you.” or “Love you!” until I heard Tiny saying these phrases to her stuffed animals.

Anyway, this morning after changing Tiny’s diaper, I picked her up and gave her a little tickle. She smiled, and I asked, “Who loves you?” I expected her to say Mommy, or Daddy, or even Grammy, Buba, or Pokey (our cat), so her answer really threw me off…

“Santa Claus,” Tiny said very sweetly.

Santa Claus? I thought. Santa Claus? It didn’t make any sense. Why would she answer Santa Claus.

And then I remembered our car ride home from the mall the day we saw Santa. Tiny kept saying, “Santa Claus. Santa Claus. I cry.” At first she sounded almost proud, but the more she said it, the more I thought I detected some sadness in her words. So I told her, “It’s okay that you cried. Lots of kids cry (and we’d seen some that very day). But Santa still loves you. He loves all the boys and girls.”

Perhaps Tiny’s memory is in fact that good, or maybe she just had something else on her mind this morning. I’ll never know. But instead of correcting her or trying to get her to elaborate, I simply said, “Yes, he does. And Mama loves you too.”