Perhaps alarm clock wasn’t a nice nickname, but that was my little Mandy—an early riser. I shuffled into her bedroom and lifted her out of the crib. I changed her and dressed her in her turquoise elephant shirt and skirt. I put a little turquoise clip bow in her blonde curls, then took her picture with my cell phone. She looked so cute, I had to upload it to Facebook. I carried her into the kitchen and fed her breakfast. The doctor let me start feeding her cereal recently and she loved it. I left her in her swing to take a nap while I got showered and dressed for work. I reminded myself to leave early, since it was only two days before the Fourth of July and there would be a lot of visitors on the island this week. I dressed in a beige A-line skirt and black short-sleeved top with my black slingbacks. Traffic was heavy, as I predicted, but I still made it to work on time. I turned off the ignition and threw my purse over my shoulder. The sun was shining and it wasn’t too humid for a July morning.
