Goodbye, Chris

William and I had one last lunch with my friend Chris Mahr yesterday.



















For old times' sake, we ate at China Wok in Palm Desert. Back in the olden days (i.e. when we were both still working for The Desert Sun), Chris and I ordered takeout from there at least once a week. We didn't have to look at the menus yesterday; we just ordered our usual. Thank goodness they still serve those! I would have been pretty devastated if I couldn't have chicken with mushrooms one last time.

This time, I had to share my chicken and mushrooms. William was perfectly happy with his banana, veggies and cheese...until the waitress deposited my plate of fragrant food on the table in front of him. If you don't want William to have any of your food, you pretty much have to keep it out of his sight. And sometimes that doesn't even work. You have to be pretty furtive about if if you're eating something that you don't want to share or, for food allergy reasons, can't share. It's no use trying to tell this hungry one-year-old that he can't have any of that delicious-smelling food that you're inhaling. "Sorry, honey, but you can't have any of my lobster burrito because it's not a good idea to introduce a child your age to shellfish. Maybe when you're three." Sure. Good luck with that. Actually, we've done just that. You just have to be firm. And not mind feeling a bit like a heel. :)

Anyway, it was great to see Chris again before we move. She's been a terrific friend to me, and I'll miss her a lot.

* * * * *

David wants me to report that William sounds like the Hamburglar. Remember the Hamburgler? I'd forgotten about him, myself, until we stopped for dinner at Mickey D's in Temecula a couple weeks ago. That's the night that William had his very first Happy Meal. Anyway, the walls had pictures of the Hamburgler, Mayor McCheese, Grimace, and the Fry Guys. Ah, memories from the past! Well, William started babbling some new words (I guess you could call them words) last week, and David swears it sounds like the Hamburgler. William actually says something that sounds like "gogglegogglegoggle," while the Hamburglar used to say "Rubblerubblerubble." But it's the same sort of pattern of sounds. You'd swear, too, that William really believe he's saying something important. And heck, maybe he is. It's not his fault that we just don't speak that language.

(Is that really how to spell Hamburglar? It just looks weird to me.)

William is also standing on his own for much longer periods of time. People keep asking me if he's walking yet, and I have to say that he can, but he only will do it if he's holding my hands or pushing something like a push toy or his stroller. But he seems to be working on his confidence level: he will actually walk when he's only holding onto one hand now. So I think that, for William, this standing and walking thing is mostly about just developing the confidence to just do it.

Also, he knows that he can get places much faster if he just drops to the floor and crawls because he's the World's Fastest Crawler. But I think he's coming around. He stood up and drank out of his sippy cup while helping his daddy unload the dishwasher this morning. I think it's only a matter of time. So he's a late walker. Big deal. He's got the fine motor and social skills down pat. And as I always say, I learned how to read two years before I learned how to tie my shoes. (Er, but I still tie them in the bunny-ears style. Oh well.)