The Good Luck "Charm"

This morning I was reminiscing with Livie about something she did as a baby, when we lived in New Mexico.

Okay, so here's some background: Andrew and I were active duty and stationed in the greater Boston area when Livie was born. When she was just about 3 months old, Andrew was deployed for 120+ days.

Then, a month after he deployed, I got orders for a new assignment just about 2000 miles away, in southern New Mexico! Livie was almost 4 months old when she and I moved across the country!! (Luckily, the military took care of packing, shipping, and delivering my household goods. My mom was my travel companion, helping me and Livie during our cross country travel by air.)

We ended up flying from Boston's Logan International Airport to the El Paso International Airport, as this was the closest major commercial airport to Alamogordo - which was where my new assignment was. (I'll have to tell that story another day.)

My maternal grandparents lived in El Paso, so we would stay at their house for a couple days before heading the 70-80 miles to Alamogordo. This was nice, because my grandparents were able to meet Livie, their great-granddaughter, for the first time.

Anyway, because we were just over an hour's drive north of my grandparents' place, my mom ended up coming out to visit once a month for about a week or so at a time, while Andrew was still deployed. She'd fly into El Paso, stay with my grandparents, visiting them for a couple days. Then she'd head north to visit me and Livie for a few days (helping me as I got through my 4-month "solo parenting" stint). Then she'd head back to El Paso for a few more days before heading home. This was a really nice setup.

This is the view of the Sacramento Mountains from our back yard. This is one reason why I miss New Mexico.

 

During one particular visit that summer, she was on the floor, playing with baby Livie, enjoying her down time with her first grandchild. See, as soon as this particular trip was over, she'd be racing around all stressed out, packing and heading out for a ballroom dancing competition (she and her coach are competitive ballroom dancers). So she was really enjoying doing nothing else but spending time with Liv.

My mom was down on the floor with her, just out of view of the camera.

As I was doing something in the other room (I think unpacking groceries?) I heard her "yelp"! I went in there to see what was going on. Apparently, a gummy, teething Livie felt like she needed to chew on something, and chose one of my mom's arms, just above the elbow. She went for the closest thing and chomped down!

Well, guess what?! The four little teeth that'd already come through had left a little bruised imprint on my mom's arm!

This outfit is similar to what she'd been wearing when she was bitten - short sleeves made her arm a tempting teething target, I guess!

My mom, knowing that her ballroom dancing dress wouldn't cover that part of her arm, could only laugh and say, "That little bite mark from my favorite person will just have to be my good luck charm!"

And you know what? It was a good luck charm! She ended up winning a good number of prizes at that competition!

After telling Livie what she had done unintentionally to her Abuelita, she smiled and told me what a great story that was. She then wondered if Abuelita remembered that incident. So I explained that once in a while, when I think of that incident, I'll ask Abuelita if she remembers, and she always smiles and says, "Of course, I remember."