Maya opened her eyes, stretched, and gave me a look that clearly said, “How the *&%$ did I get HERE?”

I explained to her that she’d done a faceplant in her macaroni, then moved her seat to the upright position. (what am I doing, preparing for landing?)

We now return to our normally scheduled mealtime.

Maya skipped her morning nap. I tried to convince her it was a good idea, but it just wasn’t happening. We moved on to lunch, and I settled her in her highchair with mac-n-cheese and chopped broccoli — which she started munching right away.

As I ate (and talked to a friend on IM), I realized she was pretttttty quiet behind me. I turned around to see a baby with her head planted in her lunch.

I settled her back and reclined her highchair seat…still kicking myself for not taking a “before” photo.

In the past, I questioned the value of having a real highchair (at one point, I think I told my mom I might as well have gotten a booster seat, but that was pre-self-feeding).

No more questioning. The removable trays have already proved invaluable, and now the reclining seat shows its weight in gold.

Peanut now really does stand up everywhere, and she’s toying with letting go to stand solo — but not quite there yet.

We’ve come a long way since this, when she first mysteriously appeared under my feet. The appearances have lost their mystery.

Wednesday brought a trip to the big city (trust me, Colorado Springs does *not* qualify as a big city) to see mama’s friend “Auntie” Dana. While we planned a visit to the botanical gardens, it was so HOT, we started out with lunch instead.

Dana laughs at my description of hot, by the way…7-1/2 years away from Houston have turned me into a wuss.

Since we blew off the botanical gardens, I cheated and took a couple macro photos of…um…the flowerbed at Cherry Creek Mall. Klassy, I know…LOL.

Little Miss waited patiently for us to finish taking photos of other peoples’ flowerbeds.

But wait…what is that on her feet? Yes, we finally got a pair of “real” honest-to-god Robeez. And you know what? I should have done it a long time ago; while the preschoolians are cute, they’re nowhere near as soft, and these actually FIT. And the knock-offs from Target? While they may look similar, they aren’t.

Photo still to come — Auntie Dana found a beeee-you-tee-ful cardigan on the sale rack at Gymboree, so Little Miss has to model once we’re truly in sweater weather.