Enjoying My Kids....One at a Time

In the past two days I've had a chance to spend a little one on one time with each of my girls. Last night, Lizzy and I went to "Elmo's Green Thumb" at the Bismarck Civic Center. I scored free tickets after agreeing to welcome the crowd. I was hoping Lizzy would stay in her seat with our friends, but no such luck..she was attached to my leg. Just before it was time to go up on stage, she decided she was going to go sit down. At that point, it was too late...she would never make it in time, and probably wouldn't even be able to find our seats. So she walked on stage with me and held my hand while I welcomed the rest of the Elmo fans to the show. I didn't realize how scary it must have been for her, until my friend Jamie emailed me this picture.

Please ignore how fat and pregnant I look...and check out Lizzy's face instead! Her expression is one of pure fear! I suppose it was a little overwhelming...being on stage, with the spotlight on us, and all those faces looking at her. Maybe she was just wondering where Elmo and Abby Cadabby were. At any rate, once we got the welcoming done, we found our seats and enjoyed the show. It was a great show, well worth the $2.50 I spent on cotton candy! And it was so fun to spend a couple of hours with just Lizzy. She was so cute..when we got home and I tucked her in she said "thanks for Elmo Mom"....pretty much sealed the deal that we'll do it again!

Today, I got to have lunch with Lexi. She's in band camp this week. It goes until 11:30 and is at a school just a few blocks from my work, so she walks to the station and hangs out for an hour while I do the Noon Report. Today we decided to have a "girls' hour" and tried a new restaurant we'd never been to before. We had sandwiches, salad and soup...then shared a piece of cheesecake for dessert. The cheesecake was delicious...the rest was just ok, but the good company made up for the so-so food. I had so much fun just visiting with Lexi and catching up on her busy life. I got the low-down on band camp, who is playing what instrument, who she sits by, who she saw, and I even found out she's sort of excited for school to start. All that and yummy cheesecake too!

Now it's Jake's turn. I told him we would do something together, just the two of us, this week, since I've spent time with each of the girls. It only seems fair. Problem is, he's not interested in Elmo (which is probably good....I might worry if a third grader was as obsessed with Elmo as my two year old is!) and his idea of a lunch date is a snack wrap at McDonalds. He suggested a movie, but the opportunity for conversation is pretty limited in a movie theater. We'll think of something...even if it's just a trip to the Dairy Queen, or the Lego aisle at Target!