If you can't beat 'em, join 'em

Tonight, a couple of friends came over to scrapbook. We holed ourselves up in the bonus room with good wine and good music, looking forward to a night without kids. Now, Maggie knows these ladies well -- they're moms of her good friends -- and the whole day she thought they were coming over to play with her. When we disappeared upstairs, she didn't quite know what to think.

It would never occur to Maggie that anyone would want to do anything without her, so she did what came naturally ... she joined us. And when I say 'joined us,' I mean she would not leave us alone. It was cute and sweet, if not a teensy bit annoying. To her credit, she wasn't particularly obstructive or distracting ... she just wanted to be there with us. First, she came up as Bobby was fixing her dinner. I heard the timer go off and sent her back downstairs. Three minutes later, she was back up. "I want to eat up here wif you." I tried coaxing her back downstairs, but she was so sweet and pitiful about it all that I finally gave in and let her eat with us. Bobby stayed to help feed her -- so much for a girls' night.

She headed back downstairs after dinner; this lasted approximately 11.3 minutes before she was back up with us. She wanted to see her friends' baby pictures, to sit in everyone's laps, and generally just be part of the fun. After getting her pj's on, she came back in to model her new attire, then insisted that my friends see her big-girl bed. Which they've seen. Many times over.

In the end, she went to bed surprisingly easy and without a fight. I know it was killing her to think of us having fun without her.

(And for those keeping score at home, the scrapbook is now up to her first time swimming in a pool. Eight months old, give or take. I'm not quite three years behind -- making progress.)