Mother Daughter Moments

We spent this weekend at Great Wolf. There were so many priceless moments, and it is always so good for the four of us to get some time away to just play. Between splashing in the water park, playing Magiquest, making crafts, and winning a ridiculous haul in the arcade (one huge dog, two big balls, five small balls, three plastic dinosaurs, one princess ducky, one plastic alligator, two candy bracelets, and one chapstick--pretty impressive), it is difficult to pick a favorite moment. That being said, this might have been one of them.

While the boys napped, I gave Issa and I matching manicures. I packed my whole kit--salt rub, lotion, and all. Issa chose the polish on our last grocery trip: Ice White topped by Justin Bieber's heart glitter top coat. It is stunning. (I would normally boycot the Bieber polish on principle, but the proceeds go to charity so I can't say much.) It is not exactly my style, but she was thrilled beyond words...especially since we flew around the room like fairies to make the polish dry.

In addition to seeing her face light up when we finished, the mother daughter time was priceless. She babbled the entire time...about her friends, school, ballet, our trip, what we should have for dinner. I don't remember most of it, but it was wonderful to just sit with her and let her babble. In the day to day of our lives, sometimes Issa gets less talk time than she deserves. Someone spills juice or melts down, we're trying to plan the next day's schedule of pick-up and drop-offs, the next big project needs doing, or we get busy doing something she loves but that doesn't provide much space for talk. In the bustle, sometimes the babbles get lost. When she was learning to talk, we hung on every utterance. Now, it blends in to the background noise. Moments like these are truly priceless. It's one of my goals to remember to create spaces like this for her--for us--even in the bustle.