Girl's Night

Jock was supposed to have a dinner meeting tonight, and I'd planned for Kaylen and I to have a little fun too. Well, Jock's still not feeling well (has been sick most of the week, worked only 3 half-days this week), so he stayed home, but we went out anyway.

It wasn't a typical girls' fun night, but we did go out to eat (which she loves!), and then made a trip to Walmart to get some things - you know, fun stuff like toilet paper, Oxi-Clean, Mucinex, spinach, juice for the t-ball team tomorrow, and new tennis shoes for a little girl whose feet grow WAY TOO FAST!!! (Those slip-on canvas shoes just don't work for t-ball or field days!)

Anyway... Has anyone ever had one of these?
Well... if not, let me just say, that if you go to Chili's for a meal, make certain you leave room for dessert!!! I didn't quite leave enough room (still full a few hours later!) but it was SOOOOO good!

Kaylen and I enjoyed our meal. Kaylen more-so after I cut her corn-on-the-cob off the cob. Apparently ordering your corn on the cob is not such a good idea if your two top front teeth are slightly loose! She started eating it, and then said, "Ouch." Not really in pain that, but I could tell it was difficult and annoying for her, so I offered to cut it off for her, and that worked much better. Good thing they give you a sharp knife with your fork! I'm sure the waiter thought we were nuts - after all you can order corn kernels or corn-on-the-cob - but he politely didn't say anything.

After Chili's we headed to Walmart. What with the huge sugary dessert, Kaylen was so silly. I'm so glad that Walmart isn't extremely busy on a Friday night! As it was, I still had to remind her to watch out and not run into people or to get out of the way - sigh! When we got home it was almost 9:00, so Kaylen headed off to bed after showing Daddy the new shoes and telling him all about the dessert. (Last time we went to Chili's we didn't leave room for dessert - big mistake!)

Anyway, it was really nice to have a night out with her. I had to really fight to regain a positive attitude after a little struggle we had before we left home, but it worked and we had a lot of fun together. I read another adoptive mom's blog recently that she has had to do that with her daughter who's about the same age as Kaylen - just explain that she may not deserve ____ because of ____, but that I'm going to let her do ____ anyway, because I love her and I still want to have some fun with her... No matter how difficult it was for me to not dwell on it and let it ruin our fun evening, I pulled it off, and it worked wonderfully.

God, please give me the strength to move beyond my frustrations and leave them behind so I can enjoy the rest of the good things in life and not dwell on the bad! Thank you for the grace in Christ Jesus. Please help me to model that to my child(ren) more often!