We were driving, and it was super time. We usually just share some stuff or bring some extra things for Emma. But we weren't eating at McDonald's, just her. I pulled up and we looked at our options. She didn't have milk, we needed milk. And we might as well get some apples for her. Looks like we're ordering a happy meal, for our toddler. It was a first. I knew a milestone had been touched, I felt the step being taken over the threashold, I knew we were going from point A to point B. Ok, maybe I'm a tad dramatic, but just a tad. My husband, he didn't really do any of those things. His attitude was more along the lines of, "yeah, we need a happy meal. Order it and let's get on with our lives." I, of course, was trying to explain to him why this was important. I believe I had the same emotional response when we bought a package of diapers for the first time. Granted, I was still pregnant so I still had my wits about me, but it was a big deal. That got old fast, as I'm sure this will too. I suppose it is most likely a woman vs. man thing, we're mushy, us moms. We can't help it, and why should we?
She is definitely growing up, it's amazing. 16 months is just not a very long time span, in normal life. But when you take a creature than can't do anything, and watch them emerge from their little caccoon of dependence, one day at a time, it just leaves you in awe. When she was itsy bitsy, just a couple of weeks, we drove up to SD, and stopped at a Burger King. We were still figuring out how to go to the bathroom with her, and order, and carry stuff, all the things that are new. There is not a changing station in the bathroom there, so I had to change her diaper on the floor, and I was so scared, because it was dirty. (no, it really was) I was really worried that she was going to get contaminated or something. I was horrified. I didn't want to put my brand new baby down on that, even with a changing pad sheilding her from the invisible gunk. It's like a new car, you don't want it to get scratched, or dented, or very dirty. It's new, and it's yours, and you want to keep it nice.
Flash forward 16 months. She now crawls around on the floor while I go to the bathroom, and has gone under a dressing room door more than once. She eats things that I can't identify. Yesterday she picked up a goldfish cracker from the dirt, and would have eaten it if I wouldn't have stopped her. A little dirt don't hurt, I realize this people. But a cracker caked in ants may. So I threw the cracker, and drowned all the little ants that were covering her hand, and she giggled the whole time.
I feel like I'm growing too.
Anyway, we got a happy meal for her. It feels weird to be here, I say that often, I know. But as you are young, you have these mental pictures of what life if going to be like, and how you are going to be, and you have these visions of the stages. And I just don't feel like I am the mother of a toddler who eats happy meals!
And the toy. It's kind of lame, don't you think? I thought they were cool when I got them, but maybe they were lame when I was little too. She's not impressed, which is probably good. We don't want her begging for a happy meal every time we see one of those blasted arches.
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