A Night to Remember

One day last week I got to spend the whole evening with my girl.  We went to see the movie Cinderella, just the two of us.  We got a giant soda and a huge tub of extra buttery popcorn to share.  (We do love those boys of ours, but they don't enjoy all that drippy, melty goodness like we do so that was an extra special treat.)

During the movie, I enjoyed watching my girl-and just being near her-as much as I enjoyed watching the movie.  Such a curious and wonderful mix of big and little girl all wrapped into one package.

It wasn't very far into the movie at all when she abandoned her own chair to sit in my lap.  Once she had settled in, I was relishing the snuggle time.  I was thinking how one day in the not-too-distant future she won't want to sit on my lap anymore.  Actually, she won't even want to be in the same theater with me--let alone the same chair.  So I was enjoying this "little girl" moment. 

While I was all caught up in this precious one sitting on my lap, the Prince appeared on the screen.  And these are the words that came out of my "little" one's mouth.  "Oh, look at the Prince.  I want to kiss him.  He is hot."    I am not kidding: those were her actual words.  How is it possible that these things actually came out of my six-year-old's mouth?  With the appearance of a man on a horse, my little girl vanished before my eyes and was talking about kissing and hotness.  This was almost too much for this mama to bear.  All I could is shake my head and tell her that sometimes she is just too much for me.  She just giggled.

Later on, Cinderella is about to make her grand entrance into the ballroom.  There she stands in her splendid blue ball gown, and it is marvelous.  Hannah and I were both a little jealous of that dress.   (And I don't even like ruffles and lace and all that girly stuff!). Anyway, Cinderella is showing a fair bit of cleavage as she prepares herself to enter.  Again, my girl floors me with her observation:  "Mom, she has boobs.   No, wait,  I mean, she has cooties."

Cinderella has cooties?  I know what she meant to say, but it amused me a great deal that she got her words all mixed up.  There is that curious mix of big and little girl again.  How can she be all curled up in my lap and be talking about boobs, cooties, and hotness?  The contrast just makes me shake my head in wonder and disbelief.

When we got home, we still had some time before bedtime.  Since the boys were out playing racquetball (having their own time together), I figured she would want to do a craft or paint our nails.  I was even mentally preparing myself for her to paint my nails-something I have a really hard time letting her do.  A control thing, I guess.  Instead of doing either of these things, she asked if we could play Monopoly.  She had never played it before, but she had been wanting to play it for about a week or more.  Another surprise for me...I was not expecting her to choose such a grown up game.  And, for the record, she needed some help counting the money, but she was a total shark otherwise.  (Takes after her dad like that, I do believe!)  We were having a lot of fun playing so I was going to let her keep playing instead of doing our normal bedtime routine.  No, she wanted her regular routine, reading a book together with her on my lap and me rubbing her back and stroking her hair until she falls asleep.  Back to the little girl again...

I was reading a book by Lysa TerKeurst this morning called, Am I Messing Up My Kids?  In there, she was talking about how our children are like rainbows.  Brightly colored gifts from God, but they are fleeting.   This really struck a chord with me.  I don't want to be the kind of mom who one day wakes to finds her kids grown and realizes that I didn't spend enough time with them.  This kind of one-on-one is hard to come by, but I really cherish it.

Every tomorrow brings a little less of my little girl and a little bit more the woman she will someday become.  I have heard many, many people talk about how quickly the kids grow up and leave and how it is important to cherish when they are little.  Honestly, I try to appreciate the current stages and phases that we are in, but some moments are more enjoyable than others.  (The way she sassed me last night, for example...) 

Never before have I experienced that feeling of her growing up right before my eyes.  It was a humbling and eye-opening evening for me.  It was a night that reminded me what a treasure my little girl, blessing and challenges and all. 

A night I always want to remember...