I have a dent in my front tooth. I just noticed it today.

And it’s driving me nuts.

I am one of those weirdos who will wiggle a loose tooth until it comes out, pick at a scab (or a zit) until it scars, and take my toenail clean off because of a little hangnail. Ergo, I have never had long fingernails.

I simply cannot allow an abnormality to just exist. I have to make a crater out of a mole hill. Like the dog who licks the wound for so long that it gets infected and he has to wear that cone around his head because otherwise they’d have to amputate his leg.

So here I sit running my fingernail over the dent in my tooth again. and again. and again.

I wish head cones were a bit more chic.

“I admire her. This is an idealized figure,” he said.

When the social gathering in her home was done with, my mom came to work to pick Little Button up and take her away so I could actually get something done.

Not that there’s anything to do right now anyway, but at least I’m not changing diapers on my chairmat.

When she saw Grandmommie, Button’s eyes lit up and those little dimples glowed. See, she does that every time she sees Grandmommie, and every time, a little warm sentimental feeling takes over my heart and makes me pathetically mushy.

The only thing in the entire world - aside from being technically female - that J’s mom and my mother have in common is a rejection complex the size of Nevada. And part of Utah.

So the fact that this child, who has no cause whatsoever for pretense, openly and enthusiastically loves my mother has given her a new outlook on life.

The little things that we think are “cute” become monumental occurrences for her, like the other day when Button grabbed her around the neck. “Amy, she HUGGED me. She did it all by herself. She’s never done that before. She really LIKES me.” I’m not kidding, people. She got teary eyed over a squeeze.

And it makes my day to see someone who’s struggled with her identity ever since her dad walked out on 7 kids, glow with such a sense of belonging and fulfillment.

I don’t have a babysitter for most of today, so Little Button is a work with me.

She’s sitting on my desk surrounded with her toys and has made it very clear to me that toy manufacturers are WAY off base.

Where are the toys shaped like staplers, CD covers, telephone cords, lotion bottles, pens, file folders, message pads and all the other stuff she is obsessed with grabbing off my desk, knocking over and dropping on the floor?

Compared to the treasure trove on my desk, her massive inventory of children’s playthings is just not cutting it today.

What…???