Successful Saturday!

The Phoenix MDA Muscle Walk this year was so great. It started earlier in the day, so our on-site meal was breakfast (thanks, Fresh N Easy!) instead of lunch (lunch didn't go so well last year). The twins did me proud, navigating their chairs in all the crowds. It makes sense that for three year olds, navigating a bright and sunny outdoor crowd of hundreds of people might be taxing on the brain. And it really is.

I am fully convinced that we have conditioned them to be so aware of their surroundings and so conscientious of the safety of pedestrians that when they get strapped into their wheelchairs in large crowds, it overloads their senses after an hour or two. Do you remember how you felt when learning to drive a car? There's the unfamiliarity of a car you've never before driven, those vain feelings of hoping that you "fit in" and that the others on the road don't realize that you only have your learner's permit, and that serious-as-a-heart-attack awareness that you are directly responsible for the safety of others simply by not straying from your lane.

Yeah, you were fifteen years old back then. These kids are three. Years old. And one single hand-talking, backwards-walking woman stepped in between Lauren's wheels and stumbled into her. Lauren melted down because of it. See, ordinarily I read her the riot act when she runs into stationary objects, but this woman was a complete dolt (sorry, lady--I'm so glad you were there to support the cause, but really), and so Lauren reacted appropriately--she ran over a woman's foot, and so melted down and sobbed uncontrollably for ten minutes. From this experience I learned that maybe I've been a little hard on them for their driving mistakes. Honestly, it's just that I know they have such mad driving skills that I want everyone to be a witness to them--but no amount of discipline or self-satisfaction is worth how completely horrible I felt when Lauren took that accident so personally.

I can mostly control my children in their ridiculously expensive wheelchairs. I cannot control the rest of you. I am nearly as inexperienced with dealing with the oblivious public as my preschoolers are. I'm working on how to handle this stuff. All I know at this point is that next year's walk will go even better than this year's. Team Double Trouble raised lots of good money for the MDA, and we had a blast at the Walk. That's really all I care about.

Photographic evidence of the morning's events follow. Phoenix locals, please note the last few photos with local news station celebrities. I'd hate for anyone to think that we're not a big deal and that people know us.