1 Mother 2 Another

We’ve had the last of Cora’s
birthday-related celebrations, and it feels as if we’ve been
celebrating for weeks. And truthfully, it’s been nearly that
long – five days of parties and family celebrations and more.
Cora’s party was an absolute blast, and I’m still
absorbing it and not quite ready to write about it, though
I’m sure that will come later in the week when I’ve
gotten the sure-to-be-adorable photos dumped onto my computer.

You’d think I’d be exhausted
at this point, and ready to get back to “normal” life,
but the truth is, I’ve absolutely loved raining so much
attention down on my youngest girl. She’s never had so much
time in the spotlight before – Maddie’s been around her
whole life, and so undivided attention is rare for my youngest to
receive. I’m not saying this is a bad thing, just the way it
is.


For the past few days, though, I’ve had a legitimate reason
to make Cora the center of attention, the focus of the days, the
decider, if you will. She’s gotten to pick meals, books,
videos – pretty much every decision that could be passed on
to her, was. And Cora has positively glowed in the spotlight.


I was worried she’d become a cake-eating, present-unwrapping
little monster, running around screaming, “It’s MY day!
MINE!” But she really hasn’t, and apart from being
incapable of waiting to open a present once she’s seen it,
she’s taken the modicum of spoiling we’ve dished out in
stride. Sure, there’s been some hesitation over sharing her
new things with Maddie right away, but we’ve been gently
insistent and so far she’s done fairly admirably.


This is an enchanting age to me, when little girls see the bigger
world with so much potential for enjoyment and their imaginations
run wild. I was worried Cora would be a bit dominated or left out
at her birthday party; we only invited a few friends that she
really likes, and they’re mostly Maddie’s age. But she
was right there with them having a wonderful time (and it
didn’t hurt that the invited girls are all considerate and
generous with their attention, either). I also knew it would be a
hard week for Maddie, watching her little sister receive all the
attention and gifts, and we spent a long time talking about it
beforehand and I’m proud to say Maddie did, on the whole,
very well, fighting her natural jealousy and stepping back as well
as she could. Which means that Cora had family-wide support and
nudging towards that runway. Cora’s poised to take flight,
and I’ve got a front-row seat to watch her wings unfurl.


So while the Cora Celebration Extravaganza may have come to an end,
I know I’ll be keeping a fond eye on that kid, trying to keep
her a bit more center in that spotlight. I can’t wait to see
what she does next.