Social Butterfly

I've noticed that Annabelle has really started to come out of her shell and open up a lot more. She is turning into quite the social butterfly. She did not get this trait from me as I was always very shy all throughout grade school. And probably painfully shy until high school.

My very first job as an order taker and order filler at McDonald's shaped me the most. Yes, people, I worked at McDonald's! And, my best friend took pictures to prove it. She thought it was quite hilarious to see me dressed in those ugly dark gray pants and teal polo shirt with a matching teal visor. I, on the other hand, literally tried to hide from the camera. I was sort of roped into taking that job when I met the store manager at a career fair. I was trying to find a job as a temporary office assistant at the ripe old age of 15 years old. Of course, no one wanted to hire a 15 year old except for fast food restaurants. I tried to dodge his phone calls too, but he was all too nice, and I all too nice myself to say no. And, I wanted to make some money. If I could track him down now, I would write him a nice letter to thank him. That job shaped me tremendously.

It was much different back then though. You know, in the old days! I'm not so sure I would encourage Annabelle to work in fast food these days (well, Chick-fil-A may be alright). I don't think her experience would be quite the same as mine, and I would definitely worry if she decided to date any of the boys she met while working there. My parents should have worried then! The boys I dated that I worked with at McDonald's were literally all losers and scum bags. Thank goodness I wasn't as stupid as my parents thought I was. Naive, yes, but not stupid!

So, anyhow, enough about me. But, the child with my anal retentive personality (poor Annabelle) seems to be a little social butterfly.

On Friday, we ventured to the "airplane park" for the very first time since Sophia was born. Woo hoo! And, Annabelle found a little girl her age to hide with her while I was literally in the middle of counting when we were playing hide-n-seek. I heard her telling the girl to hide because Mommy was counting and was going to find them. I climbed the stairs to the top of the playground set to find both girls laying on the ground, Annabelle with her head buried into the wood and Julia looking at me smiling. And, yes, that is Annabelle's way of hiding sometimes. Doesn't it make sense that no one would find you if you are laying on the ground in the middle of a floor with your face to the floor? She didn't want to let that little girl get away. Julia's mommy had called her to eat lunch, but Annabelle was encouraging her to count with her while her mommy hid.

And, then, she was the little mommy at the block party on Friday. She was the oldest, and she found it necessary to watch over all of the other children. Some of the moms were joking that they were going to have her come and babysit next week.

And yesterday, she made friends (or so she thought) with another little girl probably twice her age at the Chick-fil-A playground. She followed that little girl all over the playground. She would say, "Let me show you [this or that]," or "Let's do [this or that]." I felt sorry for the poor girl she was following, but it was very cute to watch.

So, my child who I thought was just like me is still anal retentive with a social side. You go girl!