Mama's Kiss

Did you know there's something new about Maymuna? And I'm completely in love with it... Can you see it?


I am covered in little freckles and spots... (in fact I think that you can trace a connect-the-dots Big Dipper on my right forearm)... Until recently neither of my daughters seemed to have inherited this somewhat British trait... And then I saw it. I tried wiping it. It didn't come off. I tried washing it with soap. No, it's definitely not dirt. Maymuna has a little freckle, just above her lip. It just appeared one day, and I adore it.

It brought to mind a passage from one of my favourite children's books, Peter Pan. The description of Wendy's mother, Mrs. Darling...

She was a lovely lady, with a romantic mind and such a sweet mocking mouth. Her romantic mind was like the tiny boxes, one within the other, that come from the puzzling East, however many you discover there is always one more; and her sweet mocking mouth had one kiss on it that Wendy could never get, though there it was, perfectly conspicuous in the right-hand corner.

The way Mr. Darling won her was this: the many gentlemen who had been boys when she was a girl discovered simultaneously that they loved her, and they all ran to her house to propose to her except Mr. Darling, who took a cab and nipped in first, and so he got her. He got all of her, except the innermost box and the kiss. He never knew about the box, and in time he gave up trying for the kiss. Wendy thought Napoleon could have got it, but I can picture him trying, and then going off in a passion, slamming the door.

I've named Maymuna's freckle "Mama's Kiss" and it sits there and waits just for me, until maybe one day she'll give it to someone else... Much to our delight another freckle appeared on her tummy, and Ozayr named that one "Baba's Tickle". It's amazing to me that at 3 and a half years old, new stuff keeps happening... Amazing.