It was fairly early in the party and I was sitting at one table holding my new niece, Sierra, with my grandma next to me. Now Grandma and I have always been really close and it makes me happy that even though she's totally lost her mind, she still knows me. What she doesn't seem to still know, is proper manners and cleanliness. I'm looking down at Sierra for a few minutes bouncing her on my knees a little so she'll stop crying. When she settles in and calms down I look over at Grandma to see that she is using the spoon from the homemade salsa, picking out the corn and eating directly from the bowl as though it's hers. I briefly considered trying to explain to her that it was for the whole table, but at that point, who knew how long she'd been doing it- that bowl was hers now. My grandmother was also taking the spoon, picking out the corn, then dipping the whole thing in the ranch dip and putting it directly in her mouth. So the ranch belonged to her as well. A friend looked around the table and asked where the other bowl of chips went. I look down and noticed the whole giant bowl on my grandmother's lap, under the table. Well, I couldn't keep the giggles away anymore. Sierra and I quickly retreated into the house where I made up new bowls of chips, salsa, and ranch for the table, laughing the whole time. Poor grandma. My mom found the whole thing embarrassing but everyone reassured her that nothing can be done. Grandma really doesn't understand. Eventually, mom found the humor in the situation as well.
It's no secret that Blaise and Makenna are polar opposites. Blaise is sweet, sensitive, intuitive, loving. Mak is destructive, bold, aggressive, and hilarious. Well, I think she's hilarious. Other people don't always see the humor in the things she does and says. Anyway, the birth of their baby sister has, of course, altered things a bit. Makenna is OBSESSED with her and won't leave her alone for a second. One of us will JUST get Sierra asleep and here comes Makenna. She puts her face right against Sierra's and starts talking in baby voice about how cute she is. Sierra wakes up and just wails until Makenna goes away. Blaise, on the other hand, we call the Sierra whisperer. If she's in hysterics, he just sits next to her with his hand on her stomach. She quiets down instantly and just gazes up at him. When dealing with Sierra, we definitely want to kill Makenna most of the time, but on her own, I find her delightful.
For example, I was watching Blaise and Makenna about a week ago. Now that their Uncle Billy has moved out, the basement is their playroom. We went into the basement to play some games. I was helping Blaise set up a transformer and Mak wanted to make a bracelet. I asked Blaise to go upstairs and bring down a pair of scissors in order for me to cut the string for her. He whimpered that he was too scared to go upstairs alone. I persisted that the scissors were in the kitchen, right at the top of the stairs. He said that there could be people up there. I assured him there weren't. We went back and forth about this for about ten minutes before Mak finally said, "Come on, Blaise. I'll go with you!". With that she herded him to the stairs and dutifully marched up with her arms crossed, reassuring him, "Don't worry. I'm right behind you". I fell off the couch in a fit of giggles that the 3 year old girl had to protect the 7 year old boy. They had a similar incident a few days later when we were all in the kitchen and Lori (my sister in law) asked Blaise to go downstairs to get something. He whined and whimpered. Makenna, walked past him, opened the door, and started stomping down the stairs on her own, calling over her shoulder, "Come on, Blaise. Let's go". He scrambled quickly after her. He may be a weeny in the house but I think if anyone actually posed a threat to her, he'd do something. When we were in the airport once, apparently a little boy was slowly and repeatedly stepping on Makenna's feet. Blaise pushed her behind him and said, "Hey! Don't do that to my sister!". There might be hope for him yet.
One final story about Mak. This is my favorite Mak moment currently. For her whole short little life, Mak has wanted to dance. In September, they signed her up for classes. She was beside herself with glee. Unfortunately, Makenna is terrified of the unknown so her first few weeks were not great. She would leave the dance room weeping every time. Eventually, though, she started to warm up to it and rapidly became the most enthusiastic kid in the class. However, when it got time for the dress rehearsal, she was once again terrified. Weeping and begging to not go. Lori dragged her there and got her on stage and she was great. Phew. We all got tickets to the recital and were very excited to see her class. We were not prepared for exactly what happened.
I was sitting next to Bobby(my brother) and he was terrified for her. Shaking and sweating and praying. It was kind of adorable. We watched her whole class (about 5 or 6 little girls) walk on stage and stand there staring at the audience. The music started and the teachers must have been calling out the steps from off stage because Mak would lean towards backstage to listen, then nod her head as if to say, "Ok, I got it!". Then she'd do the dance sequence, lean back again, and repeat the whole process. What was truly hilarious, was that she was doing it alone. Every other girl stood there, with a dumbfounded look on her face while Makenna did the entire dance routine by herself. She changed her spot as she was supposed to, walking around the other girls as needed. She was in time to the music and had a big smile on her face. When it ended, she turned and walked off stage like she was supposed to, leaving the other girls still standing there until a teacher ran out and herded them all off. The audience was roaring. It was one of the funniest things I've ever seen. We were crying, we were laughing so hard. At the end of the show, they had every dancer from the school come on stage and do an impromptu dance. It was clear the competition line knew the routine but no one else did. Our little Mak, watched what they were doing, and picked it up. She did the whole dance with them while, once again, all other little girls stood there looking confused. We were all so relieved and impressed. She did better than any of us could have imagined.
I've had other little "moments" with my family like when my brother, Greg, was visiting from California and flipped out for 10 minutes that my nail clipper was wrong, then returned home to discover he uses the same kind. Or when my dad spent hours secretly cleaning out my car because he, "Can't take it anymore!!!". My family is definitely ridiculous, but I wouldn't change them. They make my life interesting. As often as I'm shaking my head, I'm also laughing. Life is crappy enough, you have to embrace the laughter when you can.