I was dragging my feet a bit. I’m not big on parties, especially large parties, but there was no getting out of this one, so I resigned myself to making the best of it.

Layla’s favorite thing is the stroller. Even the sight of it gets her going, so when she saw me wheel it out of the closet there was the usual squeal and the excited baby talk that made absolutely no sense to me. But Maggie, of course, who claims she understands every word of it, happily interpreted for me. “Oh, Layla says she’s so excited to go to Mama’s party!”

Giving her a sideways glance, I just shook my head. “Let’s get going, girl!” I said as I lifted Layla from the floor and set her in the stroller.

There was a lot of baby talk and mama-to-baby talk going on at this point, so I just did my job and got us out the door and down the stairs to the street. Maggie and I had figured out that it was a lot easier to load Layla in the stroller first and then carry her in the stroller down the stairs.

“Team effort” is what Maggie called it.