It is busy around our house at bedtime.
There is much screaming from the Mommy of the house.
"Get up here!"
"Didn't I ask you to get in the shower?"
"I ran your bath - go get in it ... for heaven's sake!"
Last night - Alexis meandered into my bathroom, where I had run her a bath in my whirlpool tub - that is now officially "her" bathtub, by the way, as she is the only one that ever uses the thing. I hear her splashing around.
Suddenly, I hear a strange noise and I stop what I am doing to listen.
I conclude quickly that the sound I hear is her messing with the blinds on the window above the tub.
I walk into the bathroom.
I see her. She is standing on the edge of the tub, her shiny body glistening in the florescent lighting - her naked 6 year old booty flashing me as I walk through the door.
"Whatcha doing?" I ask, and it startles her.
She continues to peek through the blinds, one hand balancing her slippery body, the other forcing the blinds apart with her fingers. She says, "I want to look outside to see if the stars are out tonight," she is very determined.
"You are going to fall," I walk towards her and guide her back down into the tub, pinching her chubby tooshy as I do and she giggles. "Why do you need to see the stars," I ask, as I dry off my hands.
She smiles and says, "I wish I could see a wishing star," and she then scoops up a handful of bubbles from the water and slathers them on her pink tummy.
"What would you wish for," I ask, watching my tiny girl, "If you did see a wishing star - what would you wish for?"
"To be Hannah Montana," she says, as if it would actually be so - to wish it once on a star and then - poof - she would be transformed.
I smile and say, "I don't want you to be Hannah Montana. What would I do then? Where would my little Alexis go?" she is giggling now. "And ... I think you wouldn't really want to be her. You are so much prettier than she is. And so much smarter."
She rolls over and stretches her whole body beneath the warm water and bubbles, puts her chin in her hands, rolls her eyes and says, "I'd say No. She's in high school."
"Okay ... so maybe she's a little smarter - but you are lots prettier," I am now leaning over the tub and washing her arms with the rag.
She looks up at me with those big brown eyes, takes the rag from my hands and says, most confidently, "I'd say Yes. Yes I am."
On the upside ... If those wishes on stars really did come true and if Alexis had seen one - shooting through the sky last night - I'd have walked into my bathroom and Hannah Montana might very well have been soaking in my bathtub. I'm glad she wasn't. I'm glad wishes don't come true that easily. What would I do without my sweet little Alexis? What would I do?