Celebrities!

When you think of celebrities, some may think of Hollywood superstars like Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston (ok, perhaps they are a little dated, but bear with this less-than-TMZ and Extra! literate blog writing dad). Others, like myself for example, might think of my beloved Milwaukee Brewers players as local celebs... CC Sabathia, Ryan Braun, JJ Hardy, Prince Fielder... those dudes.

What I never really anticipated was that our daughters would become local celebs. As the girls continue to grow and develop, we are starting to take them out in public more and more. Last weekend we had the chance to take them to a fund raiser at my school, the Christmas and Holiday Show. As a family-related "extra," some kind parent volunteers organized a pancake breakfast, and since my Student Council students were helping out, Jeni and I thought this would be a perfect time to bring the girls in for the first time. Jeni, who has been out and about with the girls much more than I have, warned me, "We're never getting out of there in an hour." I could have listened to her, but what do I know, we've got a couple of sweet babies, but they aren't celebrities. I was wrong.

I ate about two bites of a pancake and had a sausage at the breakfast, as we were literally mobbed with happy parents and students who wanted to come and see our little lovelies. Jeni just smiled softly as Proud Dad answered questions about his girls. We then went into the Christmas and Holiday Show, and what we experienced at the pancake breakfast was multiplied by about ten. Jeni, who was on a mission to get special gifts for the grandparents, went about her shopping business and allowed me to dote over the girls. In so many ways this was so awesome! Everyone seemed to know the girls by name (in many ways thanks to this blog, which several people referenced), and just were so overjoyed to meet them. My mom and Jeni had gone to the Christmas and Holiday Show a day earlier, and even some of the vendors at the show left their booths to see the girls and ask about how they were doing.

Like any good celebrities, Grace and Hope ate up the attention. They cooed, gooed, made little noises, smiled and looked wide-eyed at all of their admirers. Like good celebs, they attracted paparazzi (well, in this case our paparazzi was our good friend who was lucky enough to borrow a camera from another friend and take this adorable photo).

Reflecting on this experience, I cannot begin to describe how truly blessed I feel, to have so many people delight in our girls. We believe in the power of positive thinking and prayer, and perhaps the girls' public performances are just their way of saying thank you for the support of their many admirers. Perhaps their mom's and dad's ear-to-ear grins tell the same story.