Sunday, April 24, 2011

Unlocking Mireya's World


DENVER -- Her name is Mireya. She is 3 years and 3 months old. She has fine black hair, a thing for "Handy Manny" cartoons and one of the most prominent last names in Colorado. Many nights, Mireya Salazar will not fall asleep unless her feet are touching her mother and her head is touching her grandmother.
It's part of an elaborate bedtime ritual in which she must place her pillow with the pink checkerboard and butterfly pattern just so, in the middle of the bed.
She has other routines, other rules. Every door in the house must be closed. If they are not, she will slam them shut. She won't eat a broken Cheerio or pasta that is not white. She can seem more interested in a pink balloon than in her father, more fascinated with a blank space in the distance than in "Papa Ken" — her grandfather, Interior Secretary and former U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar.

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