Baby Love

We had to make a quick trip to Baumholder a few days ago to tie up the moving loose ends and met up with a few of our friends afterward to have lunch. Chase hasn't really been around any other babies or kids since birth, and I was really beginning to feel like I was doing her a disservice when I had to answer "no" to all of the ER doctor's questions concerning her environment. "Is she in a daycare?" "Is she in a playgroup?" "Is she around any other children?" "Does she have a life?" "Do I sense an overprotective parent?" Ok, maybe to the last one. Anyway, our friend Sabrina and her little boy Christian just came back from the States and we couldn't wait to have the babes hang out a little bit. They had met once before in the summer when Chase was only a few minutes old and Christian was about 8 or 9 months (Sabrina, am I in the right neighborhood?). Christian smiled brightly when he saw her and reached out his chubby little baby hand to touch her cheek. I thought it was the sweetest thing I had ever seen and immediately made a mental note of him as her possible first boyfriend. I think Wil also made a mental note to run a background check on that poor baby. Here are some pictures from the babies' reunion:

My kid has a bad case of Baby OCD. She has to touch EVERYTHING with her left index finger before she can eat it/play with it/gnaw on it. I guess at this age, she probably thinks that Christian is a plaything that is about her size, for once.
I have to post this picture because, first all all, hello, they are adorable. Secondly, my child is a spitting image of her father here. I have a baby picture of Wil and you'll be amazed as soon as my Commo husband gets around to fixing our scanner and you get to see the said picture side by side with this one.
She either plans to slow dance with him or roughs him up. The intent is not quite clear.
Auntie Mara is planning Prom 2024 with fervor.
Christian giving Chase a hug. He was so cute about it, Wil actually took a moment to awwww and forgot that he had been whispering "boys are stinky, you don't like them" in Chase's ear.

Speaking of Auntie Mara, don't you guys all rush to the phone at once to call her. The woman is busy. Steve is finally home on his well-deserved R&R!!! Woohoooooo! Welcome home, Steve! We can't wait to see your tanned self. We even bought a grill in preparation of our bar-b-q. No, not really, we got that one for us, but I personally used our get together as an excuse to get a bigger one.