I’ve joked about Maddie being my sidekick but she really was. We took her everywhere with us. We weren’t those people that just brought their kid inappropriate places or anything like that. We only brought her when she was invited – and she was always invited.

Last June we went to a party in honor of a friend of ours. Nora wrote a TV-movie that was on Lifetime (WHOOO LIFETIME!), and the party was to watch the debut airing.

It was a really hot June day, and I wanted to keep Maddie as cool as possible. Normally at an event like this, when it came time for her to nap I would have had her sleep on my chest (or Mike’s), or in her car seat. But since it was so hot, I remember thinking it would be better if she slept in the guest room under a cool fan.

Dream State

I remember the light in the room was so calming and the fan’s breeze so gentle. I almost wanted to lay there next to her.

Madeline woke up just before the first commercial break. I brought her out to the TV room and she sat on the couch between Mike and me and we all watched the show. Everyone was quiet, taking in the movie, but when the commercials started we all burst into cheers and applause for Nora.

Maddie jumped about 20 feet into the air, and immediately started crying. We’d all scared her.

Mike quickly scooped her up and we took her back into the room with the fan. She calmed after a few minutes, the air swirling around us.

We watched the rest of the movie with no problems, but as the end drew closer I started to worry, realizing everyone would cheer and clap again. I pulled Maddie onto my lap, just in case she was scared again.

I needn’t have worried. The movie ended and everyone started to cheer and clap – including Maddie.

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