Girl Time

Yesterday, my daughter and I had the best time. We did girl stuff, which is not always common at our place. She is at the stage where she wants her mom, but she wants to be her own person. The two don’t always coincide in her mind.

The day started by her letting me do her hair. It’s not often that she lets me brush, curl or basically play with her hair. But yesterday, she walked into my bathroom and asked for some small braids that used just the top part of her hair and started at the sides of her head and eventually joined into a ponytail in the back of her head. Easy to do, and she looked like a cute little Irish lass by the time I was done.

The smile was worth getting out the door later than planned.

That night after dinner, Mr. Right was scouring Monster.com, CareerBuilders.com, etc., for a job. The boy was trying to figure out how to make Mario do something really cool in Mario World.

That left me and my daughter to find something to do. She asked for a bath, a really hot one like I like to take. I filled it and added some of the rose petal soap that I got for Christmas. She was in heaven.

“Oh Mom… This smells so divine,” she sighed.

Divine? Where was my little girl? That was such an adult word.

After slowly lowering herself into the steaming water, she proceeded to tell me all about her day, her thoughts and whatever happened to be running through her mind. Who knew that hot water would loosen more than muscles? She was talking about anything and everything.

After she was out of the soak, she asked if we could give each other a massage. Well, you don’t have to ask me twice.

That girl has good hands! I’m thinking of sending her to a massage therapy school already. And she really liked the one on one, personal time that I was able to give her. Plus, she was really relaxed after her backrub.

We have a rule that she can read for a half hour before lights out. She has been reading a book that I recommended, Ida B : . . . and Her Plans to Maximize Fun, Avoid Disaster, and (Possibly) Save the World by Katherine Hannigan . (I read it first and after discovering how delightful it was, I laid it on her shelf, hoping she would be interested in reading it.) She finally finished it. She ran into my room to tell me how much she really liked it. It was amazing discussing the book with her, extracting her views, opinions and favorite parts. She proved herself a proficient reader and a clever discerner of literary thoughts.

For a moment, I realized (again) how fleeting this time is with her. She is growing up so quickly… I am so incredibly blessed to have this special girl in my life. Not only can she make me laugh, she makes me think. She makes me remember that there are things in life more precious than gold… like the smile of child.

Now I bet she is only wishing I would remember that the next time she is in trouble…