The Story of the Breaker Who Got Broken

One of the things I love most about my bestie, Little Mama, is her love for children. She and I have very high (and when I say "very high," I mean extremely high) expectations of our own children. We expect them to behave like perfect angels at all times. Okay, maybe that is a bit dramatic, but hopefully you understand the point - we love our babies more than most mothers dream about loving their babies... Again, a bit dramatic, especially considering almost every mother feels this way, but you get the point, right?
Anyway, during our football practices, we've met a little girl who is not only dying for a friend, but for attention and love. Due to the fact there aren't any kids her own age at the practices (she's only 3 or 4), she's really taken to the three "big" girls. At first they were sweet to her, but it quickly became apparent she was more of a nuisance than fun, and they started devising ways to nicely get away from her. This little firecracker is not one to be gotten away from, though - she has latched on the older girls with a vengeance, and it is clear she isn't leaving them to their own devices anytime soon. And so our girls have been doing their best to include her, despite the age gap and her utter lack of tact.
Enter Little Mama into the picture... Due to the fact the little dumpling comes to practice with her dad, she is often unkempt and seems to crave the attention of a mother. And so when she says outrageous things like "There are two bad people here on this blanket," and "I don't want to play with so-and-so," Little Mama lets her know it is inappropriate to say such things. And so of course the Little Girly has taken to Little Mama...
It bothers Little Mama greatly that Little Girly is neglected and lacking in manners and basic etiquette. And so one day, after explaining something to Little Girly about playing nicely, Little Mama said to me, "I'm going to break that girl before this season is over." Meaning, she's going to teach Little Girly how to play and act appropriately around other children.
Well, fast forward to last weekend at our boys' football game, whereupon Little Mama's intentions become emotionally entangled, and the Breaker became the Broken... After running amok for most of the game, completely detached from her mother and father, who were both at the game, Little Girly got "in trouble" with her mom, who promptly took her to her dad, who held her for a few minutes while she screamed and kicked at him as he watched his son play football. Shortly after this occurrence, here comes Little Girly, tears on her face, and plops down beside Little Mama. Of course Little Mama comforted her and asked her what was wrong, and eventually Little Girly said she just wanted to lay down, and so she did, on Little Mama's purse, and more crocodile tears slid down her chubby little cheeks. And that's all it took for Little Mama's heart to break, and now she is smitten with and worried about and well on her way to becoming emotionally attached to Little Girly...
And me, I had to laugh over the entire situation, because I know Little Mama so well, which means I know how much she loves children and what a good mother she is and how deeply she cares about the world in general, even if she doesn't realize it about herself. I laughed not to be mean, but because of the way this little girl snuck her way into Little Mama's world. And even though the two of us say "How could you let your kid run around like this and not know where she is every second? This is how children get stolen!" and "What is wrong with her mother to see her baby girl crying and not even comfort her?" and "Why do people who don't want to take care of their kids have them?" I know Little Girly is going to be better off than she ever has, and she has found an emotional refuge, at least for the time being, in Little Mama. In all of us, really, because we all think she's cute, even if she is a bit annoying to the older girls.
Little Mama's the one she got to, though, and I can't wait to see how the rest of this story plays out as our season progresses. Indeed, the Breaker became the Broken... Hearted, that is.