The Queen had a doctor's appointment this afternoon. We planned on meeting up afterward for dinner and whatever else struck our fancy. Of course, M&M goes where The Queen goes, and that is as it should be. So, we had a nice family "date" night starting with some yummy barbeque at Rudy's (where they serve what you ask for in the amount you ask for on a sheet of butcher paper...the way it should be).
Any lip smackin'...with full bellys and time to burn in subfreezing temps, we headed for the mall.
The main reason for going to the mall was to walk around and give M&M some play time in the mall's play area with other rugrats. This is the scene of daddy's proudest moment to date.
M&M was having great fun running around and climbing on the assorted soft padded objects available for use by midget house monkeys. Among the midget monkeys was a little boy somewhere between 18 and 24 months who took a particular fancy to MY DAUGHTER (you need to read that in the vein of Terry Pratchett's Discworld Death character...if you are not familiar with Discworld, you are missing out...hugely).
Any DEATH, mini midget monkey decided that he MUST become one with M&M and proceeded to propel himself at breakneck speed towards M&M with arms outstretched with the apparent intent to tackle M&M.
Now...here is where my Daddy Hawk heart just swelled with pride.
M&M saw the midget monkey missle headed her way, caught him mid tackle, PIVOTED around mid collision and landed comfortably on TOP of her would be tackler who sorta whacked his head on the generously padded floor stunned that his carefully crafted plan went horribly awry. She did this without prior training or benefit of learning from psychotic older siblings.
She's a natural.
What more could a daddy ask for?