The Good Life

and simple solutions.

I've spent the past few days on a whirlwind of adventures with my family. So far I've seen my sister, brother, sister-in-law, niece, mom, dad, one uncle, two aunts, two cousins, and three cousins-in-law. I've been to Denver, Fort Collins, Denver, Boulder, Denver, and Omaha. I've visited with old friends, run the BolderBoulder 10k, and seen Wicked for the third time. All of these things have been wonderful and memorable, but my favorite moment of the trip occurred at 2:30 this afternoon.

After spending the morning and early afternoon helping my brother pack and load his family's belongings into a giant flatbed trailer, pickup truck, and SUV in preparation for their move to a new house, my parents, brother, 2-year-old niece and I went to eat a well-deserved lunch at a local sandwich shop (my sister-in-law had to work, thus her absence). Emma was a good two hours past her regular nap time and was in a delightfully, dramatically foul mood. We were all sitting outside eating our sandwiches and trying not to laugh at Emma's over-the-top proclamations, when a preteen boy with Down Syndrome who was sitting on the other side of the glass began tapping on the window and making faces, trying to cheer her up.

Eventually the kind-hearted boy came outside, walked up to our table and asked Emma her name. Emma barely spared him a glance and continued to huff and pout. My brother explained that Emma was just very tired and we chatted a little bit with the boy. He continued to try to cheer Emma up as we finished eating. Finally, it was time to go and my brother folded up the rest of Emma's potato chips (she had been eating chips all morning and had had more than enough, even before lunch) and oh. The rage, you guys. "MY CHIPS! ME BACK MY CHIPS! CHIIIIIIIIIIIPS!" Full on toddler meltdown.

This continued for a good minute or two, with the addition of tears-on-demand and escalating screams, until the boy, who had been worriedly observing this from a few feet away, sidled up to my brother and advised in an urgent, helpful tone, "Dude. Just give her the chips."

:)