I have always enjoyed and benefited from a good mnemonic device.  I’ve used them in music as a kid and, most notably, in geology at college.  The one I remember the most is “Can Oscar See Down My Pants Pocket?”  I have never been able to forget the international Paleozoic timeline:  Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian, Devonian, Mississippian, Pennsylvanian, and Permian.  My little one is getting to love dinosaurs just as her father and I always have.  In fact, a few years ago Burk and I discovered when we were kids we were both members of the Junior Archaeological Society.  It was in the Natural History Museum at Fair Park.  Kids could sift for fossils and we both still have our finds somewhere.  The Brontosaurus is one of the largest animals ever to walk the earth.  I have always liked them because they were believed to be plant eaters.  Burk and I also really loved the ’70’s television show “Land of the Lost” as kids.  I can still sing the whole theme song.  Recently our little one came home with this PINK dinosaur hatched from its PINK egg and was just ecstatic!  “How cool is that, Mama?!” she asked as she looked up at me with sheer happiness.  “Way cool, kiddo,” I replied, smiling down into her dark, sparkling eyes.  She asked if I would play with her so we set about finding her baby suitable plants to eat.  I took to inserting random facts about different dinosaurs as we played.  Sitting out in the sunshine discussing ancient animals with my child while she listened in rapt fascination is one of the best times I have had with her; and I have had many.  I am truly amazed at how motherhood just keeps getting better and better.  Helen Hunt Jackson, the American writer and activist on behalf of Native Americans once said:

“Motherhood is priced Of God, at price no man may dare To lessen or misunderstand.”

Each day brings with it a new surprise:  sometimes it’s a handmade card, sometimes it’s a compliment so full of love and sincerity I wish I could bottle it, and sometimes it’s a baby brontosaurus.