Giddy

On our road to life as a regular kid, there are milestones that take on enormous meaning. They are the same milestones that all of our friends’ children have achieved at some point. Yet we find that because we have fought so hard for them, they make us quite giddy. They become monumental moments. As you might imagine, most of these achievements center on food and eating. And, they come at the most unexpected moments.

Yesterday, our little family attended the baby naming of our little buddy Aaron. Aaron’s grandmother paid special attention to her little guests—Charlotte was treated to two firsts: her first balloon and macaroni and cheese. She was fascinated by both! She ate at least 5 pieces of macaroni. And she ate a lot more ice cream, vanilla and chocolate.
(Blogger won't let me load the picture of the balloon. Sorry.)

The mac and cheese might have been a fluke. It was about 2:30 p.m. and that is when we generally hook up a small feed during her nap. So, her body is used to getting food then. (In fact, she’s stirring in her nap right now because I forgot to hook her up and it’s too late to do so. Poor thing.) Okay, it might have been a fluke. Then again, today at lunch she rejected her cottage cheese and fruit purée in favor of my grilled potatoes and zucchini. She even tried (and liked!) some of my bratwurst.

And, yes, this was all most unexpected because Charlotte’s sleep has been nothing short of wacko this weekend. She refused to nap properly on Saturday, fighting both of her naps for an hour before finally crashing. Same thing yesterday morning. Yesterday afternoon, we gave up and kept her at Aaron’s celebration. Both Saturday and Sunday morning she slept in really late for her (nearly 7:45 a.m. yesterday) and had a hard time falling back to sleep. Today, she’s right back on schedule with both naps. Just a weird weekend all around.

So, flashback a year: Last 6/25 we celebrated our (secular) wedding anniversary at a Sappori, an Italian bistro not too far from Children’s Memorial Hospital. We were giddy because we had just learned that our pumpkin would be coming home in a few days. This year, we celebrated our wedding anniversary by sharing our friends’ family celebration and we were giddy because Charlotte showed definite interest in “big girl” food.

Giddy is good.