Mirror, Mirror...

So today I finally get a moment to tend to my eyebrows. These things were damn near growing a mind of their own. I sit with my compact mirror and tweezers and get to work. Mayah, who had been minding her own business for the half hour before I decided to sit down, decided she was no longer into her puzzle and in true toddler fashion... snatched my mirror.

No, Mayah. Don't touch! I snatched my mirror back and tried to get back to work.

The little one crawled on to my lap and the tug of war over the mirror continued a few more minutes until she finally got the hint and gave up. She sat on my lap quietly... me tweezing away looking in my mirror... little by little without realizing it, I was leaning out of view in the mirror to make way for the other little face leaning in towards the reflection. Curious as to what mom was so focused on, Lil Ms. Nosey couldn't resist checking it out for herself.

I fought the urge to pull away and continue tweezing cause seriously... I NEVER find the time for this sorta stuff... and I held the mirror towards her instead.She fidgeted and waved the mirror around a little bit until I could only guess, she caught her own eyes in the reflection. And the smile that came across her face was priceless.

Who's that? Mayah. Oooh so pretty, Mayah, look...

I closed the compact and opened it again... closed it and opened it again and again just to see her reaction. Each time her eyes met her reflection, she lit up and she'd smile ear to ear pointing in the mirror...

Oooh wow... peeety... peeety... she said again and again.

And I couldn't help imagine what it's like to be her, seeing herself through her eyes. She doesn't understand what beautiful is or what ugly looks like. She doesn't know what it means to be fat or skinny. She doesn't see fair, caramel or chocolate colored skin. She's not aware of the way her hair falls... how far apart or close together her eyes are... or the shape of her lips.

I could only imagine what it's like for her to look in the mirror and how happy she must be to see a familiar face. A beautiful, happy, kind and friendly face. Her very own "peeety" face.  And I remembered one of my favorite quotes:

I ponder on this thought and how I should try harder to look at myself through those same eyes. And that's when the ugly thoughts start creeping in... It makes me a little sad to think of how society is eventually going to distort the image she has of herself. She'll be bombarded with images of airbrushed figures and unrealistic beauty standards even to the model in the photo. How it's embedded in so many of us women to look in the mirror and pick and prod at our faces with imaginary scalpels, pins and needles until we no longer recognize ourselves as a perfect creation made in His image. Like so many of us, she'll look in the mirror and only see what needs to be "fixed". She may be led to believe she lacks self control because her thighs touch and her arms are too soft...

But as rudely as these thoughts interrupted and tried to steal this moment with my daughter... I had to put these thoughts in check.

Screw society and their standards. Society isn't raising my girls. I'm Mom. And in a girls world... Moms voice is the loudest... Even when she's not around to speak words of reassurance like mothers do when their daughters feel insecure. Chances are, if mom can look in the mirror and tell herself that she's pretty for her girls to hear... her daughters will be able to say it too.

So now because I stopped my plucking to write this... it's time for me to pick up my kids from school with one perfectly shaped eyebrow and other lookin' something like barbed wire. Eh. Just another opportunity to set an example!

My Latina Beauty Queen.