A standing Ovation, please!

With all the grace of a sorority girl on sky-high heels, our little Maggie has decided to venture into the world of independent standing. Watch out, world, walking is just around the corner!

Maggie has also discovered that she likes to eat. A lot. She’s a little fat kid who spent our entire trip in Arizona eating. The little thing regularly ate twice the meal that her sister was eating and actually polished off most of whatever Mia didn’t finish! It’s amazing. I keep expecting to wake up and discover that she’s actually grown out of her clothes overnight like the Incredible Hulk.

Mia is unwilling to let Maggie have all the fun of discovering new skills. She has learned how to crawl out of her crib. This happened first when we were at my parents’ house – she just heaved herself out of the pack ‘n play and headed upstairs to Grandpa and Grandma who were happily on hand with sugar-free candies and Belgian chocolates, story books and crayons. But this morning we heard her calling for us and then silence…

The door to the nursery opened and then Maggie started to cry. Mia frantically hushed her from the hallway saying, “Sh! Sh! Maggie – I back, it’s OK!” and then ran back into the nursery. It was an extraordinarily sweet thing to hear upon awakening.

Mia has been alternating about every 15 minutes between an absolute angel and complete devil. I guess that means that the golden age of the Terrible Twos has become a bit tarnished. Maggie, on the other hand, has been predominantly joyful as long as she has access to food at any given minute. My kids are hilarious.

The trip to Arizona was so fun. We visited with our families, which is always enjoyable. A trip to the zoo happened in Phoenix on a day that topped out at 85 degrees – it was about as beautiful as it can be!

Then in Sedona… well, I was just beaming as I watched Michelle get married. I expect there will be many more weddings to come (these people we worked with are stars and will be quite the catch!) but she’s the first of our youth group to tie the knot. I feel excited, maternal, proud and a little nervous that if they’re old enough to get married I’m definitely getting old! That does nothing for my internal clock that says I’m about 23!

My most embarrassing moment of the trip came when we were having a bit of breakfast at the Secret Garden with Frank and Thelma. The men ordered the same thing and the women ordered the same thing. I had really debated whether to order toast and finally decided against it but then was really excited that Izzy had gotten toast with his meal. We were sitting catty-cornered from each other and so I had a plate of toast from Frank at my left hand and then Izzy had his toast across the table.

Well, to make a long story short, I began to just fixate on this toast. For some reason I was absolutely taken with the idea that I needed to eat it! I noticed that the toast at my left hand was going untouched, but being the gently-reared lady that I am, I couldn’t possibly ask for Frank’s toast. So, I noticed that there were two pieces left on Izzy’s plate and decided to make my move, interrupting my conversation with Thelma to ask for his toast. At this point I had become really obsessed with the toast and just HAD to have it.

He said that the toast wasn’t his at the same time that Thelma answered, of course, I could have some of her toast! All the time I had been thinking about the toast I just hadn’t realized that toast came with my order and the untouched plate at my left hand was actually mine to eat, to butter and enjoy! We all got a good laugh out of it… and I think that if I think about it a little more I can probably come up with some good life analogies from the experience!