So this is love...

Last Saturday night (the Saturday that was a week ago, not yesterday) Lainey and I were rushing and scrambling to get ready for a little excitement.  We had to get all dolled up and glamified for a night out in the 'Burg.  Tyler and I had wisely not mentioned our little girl's night out until earlier that afternoon.  Who wants to hear "Is today the day we...?"  or "Is it Saturday yet?" all week long.  Because if you have kids you know exactly what I'm talking about.  At our house, we avoid these types of interrogations at all costs.  Secrecy is a vow that we keep as parents in order to keep our sanity. 

But we broke our sacred vow of secrecy that fateful afternoon because the thing we were going to was that night.  And boy was she thrilled.  Mommy was thrilled, too, because more than I love my sanity, I love being the one to make my daughter thrilled.  She even put itchy tights on without fuss!  Miracle of miracles!  As I rushed to get ready, I asked Tyler to double check the location we were heading to.  He kindly went to the computer to look it up.

"Ty, where is it at?"  I shout, wondering what could be taking so long.

"Honey, what day is today?"  He shouts back.  Huh?

"It's March 7th, right?"  I say, thinking, Why would he ask me that?  I am a stay-at-home-mom.. all my days mesh together.  I hardly remember that days are numbered. 

I hear Tyler walking toward the bathroom.  He meets my eyes in the mirror.  

"Carrie."  Dramatic pause.  "It's not until next Saturday.  It's March 14th."

What?!?!  Oh no.  She's going to be so disappointed.  She even put itchy tights on without a fuss.   The poor girl is going to be heartbroken.  There go all those brownie points I earned that afternoon.  Sigh... 

Oh.  no.  No way.  Ahhh, man.  She's going to be asking me if it's Saturday yet all week!  That dreaded repetitive annoyance that is a child's inability to understand the concept of time would be my plague all week due to my inability to read the darn ad.

So after the tears of a young girl's broken heart and our attempt at salvaging our 'special' night (a trip to the movie store for Tinkerbell and some licorice), I waited for the barrage of questions to begin.  Fortunately, we had Tinkerbell for the whole week as a distraction, but unfortunately we couldn't watch Tink shake her bells all day every day.  We did make it through the week, of course.  Wasn't nearly so bad as I thought, of course.  Lainey's a much better kid than I give her credit for... of course.  So...

After our week of waiting and much anticipation, Lainey and I got all dolled up and glamified once again last night.

And made a real night out of it by going to dinner first.  (Every five seconds she wondered if it was time to go yet and if we were going to be late and if it would start soon and how much longer till we got to go and if she ate enough of her pasta so we could leave)

And then the dream that was a wish in Lainey's 5 year old heart came true.  We watched our local ballet company (Ellensburg's got a ballet company...you can find 'culture' anywhere, I guess) perform their production of Cinderella.  We even got to meet Cinderella after the show!  

And after all that excitement and due to the lateness of the show, we couldn't quite make it home before our eyes got heavy.  (hers, not mine.  No falling asleep at the wheel for me!)

One of my favorite things Lainey says is after a long day like this particularly exciting Saturday.  "Mom, we had a lot of day today."  And it was fun, too!!!

The first thing I said to Tyler when we got home was that he could take her next time.  And if you have ever done something special with your kids, you know this was a huge concession on my part because I would love to horde more than my fair share of Lainey's magic moments and be the one who always saw her eyes sparkle at new experiences, but that wouldn't be fair.  She's half of Tyler, so he deserves to have that face from moments like that etched into his memories just like it is in mine.

Another page in my journey through motherhood filled with sweet memories.  So this is love... loving her face, loving having time for just the two of us, loving being able to give her a small part of what the world has for her to experience, loving her smiles and her joy at simplicity, at creativity, at beauty.