Girl's Weekend

This past weekend, I took Abby with me to see my little brother graduate from college.

In the four hour car ride there, we listenend to music, watched a movie (she did, not me), read books (again, just her) and had fun conversations.  There was no fighting over whose turn it was to pick the movie or who got to sit where.  No emergency bathroom stops.  No crying for a bottle.  No changing a diaper on the side of the road.

It was lovely.

My favorite part?  When she took a bite of her chicken nugget and said, "My tooth is loose!"  I looked in the rearview mirror and saw it wiggling away.  Finally.  The girl has been burning with envy every time she sees her friends at school losing their teeth. 

We spent the night at one of my college roommate's house.  Kristan lives a half an hour from my brother's college so it worked out well.  Her kids thought Abby was awesome and kept following her around.  It was pretty cute.  Plus, I got to spend time with Kristan :)



Noah, Leah and Abby



For the first time ever, Abby and I shared a bed all night.  That was interesting.

First of all, I am used to a king sized bed, so sharing a smaller bed with a kicky six-year old was fun.  After she finally calmed down from playing with the kids until 10 pm, and then had some tylenol to help with the pain of her loose tooth, she fell asleep.  Truthfully, I am pretty sure I fell asleep before her.

I thought, "Great!  She will finally sleep in!"  Nope.  6:50 am she was tapping me on the shoulder.  Seriously?

Went to church with Kristan's family, where the sermon was about self-control.  Funny.  The way our children could not sit still during the service made me think they were not listening to the pastor.  Hmm.

Finally got to see the house that my brother has been living in this past year.  Typical college house-that should be enough description.  Something tells me that the girls' floor was a lot cleaner.

Abby was so proud of her Uncle Billy when he walked across the stage and received his diploma.  She kept waving at him and his girlfriend, Brittany, who also graduated that day.  I cannot imagine sitting through that ceremony with the boys, but Abby was a trooper.  Okay, so the bag of snacks that my mom gave her probably had something to do with her patience.

On the way home, she watched Tangled and promptly fell asleep after that.  I enjoyed listening to my music and being alone with my thoughts while she snored away.  Considering we got home at 11 pm, I gave her the choice to sleep in and go to school late.  She agreed, but come Monday morning, she was awake and ready for school.

I used to have that kind of energy.  Where did it go?  Oh, that's right-she took it from me six-years ago.

I am so thankful that we had that time together.  Too often, my only time with my daughter is helping her do her homework and then asking her to watch Noah while I finish housework.  The way that she kept hugging and kissing me the entire weekend, I knew that she missed our time together, too.