New Friends and New Seat

Today Kaitlyn and Lilly met my old friend, Maggie, and her daughter, Lily, aged 15 months. Maggie and I lost touch about ten years ago, but reconnected recently via Facebook. We discovered we had daughters of similar age, and looked forward to introducing them. So Maggie and Lily arrived this morning at 10 am. Plenty of time to get dressed and eat breakfast, except for this morning we all slept in until 9:45! I count on Kaitlyn to wake me up in the morning, and usually she wakes by 9. She had a late night last night, though, so needed her sleep this morning, I guess! But we played for about an hour and a half with Maggie and Lily. I enjoyed watching Kate with another toddler in her house, a new experience for us. She graciously showed Lily all her toys and how they worked. The two tussled momentarily over a cup of juice, forgetting whose was whose, one of which was full and one empty. We filled both up again and the moment was saved. Lily made herself right at home and explored the play room and the nursery. Kate kind of followed her around... not what I was expecting, since she is so bull-ish in her library playgroup. Lily's strong personality matched Kate's well, though, which may account for the difference. Also, the one on one may help with that as well. They both enjoyed themselves, and Kate was sad to see her new friend go home. We walked them out and Kate ran to the end of the driveway and waved bye-bye until they were gone from sight. She fussed a little as if in frustration, but then perked right up again. We hope to see them again soon.

Lilly gained new vantage at dinner tonight! We ate out for dinner at a Brookside restaurant called Jalepeno's, a favorite of ours, very kid-friendly (read: noisy!) and cheap, but tasty. Kate's been eating there with us since she was born, and Lilly's been twice since she arrived. But tonight, we ordered TWO highchairs for our table! Lilly sat up so big and nice in her chair through our entire dinner! The girls made faces at each other across the table, and Lilly plucked at Daddy's shirt sleeve while he ate. She also played with various objects on the table, and didn't fuss even once!! It felt so good and so right to sit at the table across from Jeremy with our two girls sitting there at the table with us.

We want to welcome our new cousin/niece, JUNA, to the world today. She emerged from her mama around 4 this morning. Good job, Sarah and Jonathan. We can't wait to meet her and shower her with love.