There are days that you girls make me so proud, other days that I'd sell you to the circus in a heartbeat, but some days I'm really impressed. Last night was a proud night. It was the Christmas party at our office. I dressed you both up in fruffy dresses, knowing that alone could send either or both of you off the deep end but trying it anyway. Instead, Payton strutted around the house pulling up her dress to show us that she had tights on, as big girls wear, and Parker just grinned and grinned, obviously quite proud of her prettiness. We loaded you up in the car right at 5 o'clock nearing the time you would both normally have dinner. As I've written before, Parker takes her eating very seriously, so expecting anything from her at dinner time is really not fair at all. But instead of a crazy hungry baby, we got a sweet charming grinner who spent most of the evening being passed around never really making a peep. Even when she did get hungry we offered her formula instead of food and she took it happily, even falling asleep peacefully for a few minutes in my arms. Payton was as good as could be as well. At first she was slightly shy, but not in a scared screaming brat kind of way, just bashful a bit, hanging out close to Mom or Dad for a while. Then she warmed up and made lots of friends. The little social butterfly made her way around the party chatting with everyone. She sat with Joanne for quite a while and at the end of the party made plans to see her again, tomorrow, as Payton often does after contemplating her schedule in her head. I did have to talk her into coming home with me instead of going to Joanne's to meet her dog, but even then there was no scene, just a precious little girl who made everyone feel loved.
A side note, I hate that Payton is holding a sippy cup in this picture! She is 95% using real cups, but for travel in the car she still gets a sippy.
Last night we did one of those crazy parent-at-Christmas-time things. We waited, in the cold, for over and hour so that Payton could see Santa. It started out harmless enough. I read about the Bonita Christmas Festival where Santa would be along with snow, tree lighting and cider. Being the Christmas lover that I am, I thought that it would be fun to take the girls to see Santa and play in the snow. So, we spent 3 days talking it up to Payton, what would she ask for, what would she say to him. I had NO idea that it would be one of the coldest evenings in Florida or that every child from Key West to Tallahassee would be there in line. Upon our arrival we assessed that the line was insane and that we would not be participating in such craziness. Thinking we could outsmart a two year old, we held her up, pointed to Santa and told her that she'd seen him. Then we moved on to explore the festival. We ate hot dogs, drank cold cider, experienced the "snow" and started planning our departure. That was about when sweet little Payton said to her daddy, "I wanna see Santa." He looked at me, his mother, and me again. I suggested we jump in the car and head over to the warm and toasty Santa who hangs out at Bass Pro Shop, but Jason, being the good daddy that he is, headed to the back of the line. And we waited. And waited. For well over an hour. It was probably 50 something degrees, and well after dark, so it seemed bitterly cold to me. But Payton never complained, never fussed, just hung out right with us like an angel. When we got close enough Jason put her up on his shoulders and at that moment it was all worth the wait. I looked up and she was waving frantically at Santa shouting "I'm coming Santa, I love you!" It was to cutest thing, made for the movies. And if I had charged my camera battery, or Jackie had charged hers, I'd be happy to post a photo, but we didn't. I was able to get a couple photos as I would turn the camera off and on, so here's what I've got.
wanted to do her part. At first she was helping by following Daddy around the house giving him moral support as he moved the ladder, climbed it, painted and moved it again. But then she walked into the brush and had a meltdown. I think that she was afraid that she was going to get into trouble, but as long as she was crying we couldn't get mad. Eventually she moved on, and decided to help paint. Yes, she ran around outside all moring in her jammie top, panties and Stride Rites. No, we are not white trash!
