Monday, October 02, 2006

Daddy's big girl

Melissa's already at the stage where where she wants to do everything bigger people do. She's been fascinated by our broom for a while, and now she's finally big and coordinated enough to can manhandle it around a bit herself. She did this after I fed the kids brownies after naptime -- with Rachel's approval, lest you get the wrong impression -- and I swept up the crumbs raining down from Melissa's high chair. She ran over to the broom when I was finished and "swept," too. I wish I had a picture of her posing with the broom and dustpan when she was done, infinitely pleased with herself.

Another item: on a whim, I gave Melissa a piece of junk mail this afteroon. "Put it in the trash, please!" I said. She took off as fast as her baby legs could carry her, and strained on tiptoe to get it in the trash bag. Amazing how much they can understand at this age.

Final item. Two thursdays ago, I took the kids to Carl's Jr for dinner while Rachel had orchestra practice. Melissa charmed everyone in the restaurant instantly. She went up to one couple and held up her arms in the universal Pick Me Up sign, smiling winningly. They picked her up and offered her a french fry. I didn't mind. Then Melissa wanted to dip it in fry sauce. She went through quite a few fries this way, and the young couple went through piles of napkins wiping the sauce off of just about everything. I congratulated myself that it wasn't me going through the napkins that evening. Then, today, I met Rachel for lunch at a burger place and Melissa insisted on fry sauce again.

Yes, the pile of napkins on my tray was large indeed.

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