Throw me something, Mister!

On Saturday, Maison experienced about 5 minutes of her very first Mardi Gras parade. It was freezing cold, so we did not stand on the street for the parade, but we did have lunch at a restaurant on the parade route. We were lucky and got a seat in front at the window, so we could watch the parade going down the street. After lunch, we stood on the street for a couple of minutes to let her get a small taste of bead catching and also to appease the inner child in my mother. Who ever saw a grown woman get so excited about moon pies, little plastic beads and the slight chance you might get a cheap stuffed animal? Maison was a champ for about 2 floats. She was waving her little hands and picking the beads up from the ground and putting them around her neck. I decided gathering the beads up from the street was unsanitary so I picked her up. I am sure the drunk dude that threw them to her washed his hands after he used the float's Porta-Potty, right? I was holding her when a float with some very enthusiastic (translation: drunk) float riders came by and beamed Maison and I both right in the face with a wad of about twenty beads. That was the end of that for the baby girl! Hysterics commenced and it was time to head to the house. My poor Mom... she had to leave without her stuffed bear.

That night, Maison reenacted the parade for Uncle Scott in our living room. She forced him to sit on the living room floor while she gathered her beads and threw them up in the air. He was a great sport about it and now I think she loves him even more.