Mother Daughter Date

Rowan ready to sail her boat

Last night I took Rowan on a long-overdue, much-anticipated mother daughter date. This was our first official one, but I hope it will become a monthly tradition. She's done a great job with adjusting to her new role of big sister, but she still is clearly missing all that one-on-one time we used to share. When she was the only, we used to fill our days with craft projects, lots of imaginary play and cooking. Lately we are doing well to all get dressed, make it to a beach and maybe get some groceries on the way home. A couple of weeks ago when I asked her if she would like to spend a night just her and I while her daddy watched Retta she said, "YES!!! We can pretend we are in a rocketship, then we can climb trees, climb the house, climb a cloud, make a fairy house, look for animals in the woods, and go to the playground!" Over the past week, her itinerary for us grew substantially: we also needed to fly a kite, do ballet together, play dress up, and of course, eat cupcakes!!! 

Tree climbing

So last night after dinner we packed an adventure bag, said goodbye to Aaron and Retta, and set off for the playground. We had great fun singing to Raffi in the car, sailing our boat we made together on the stream, eating cupcakes, having playground time and flying kites. On the way home we talked about Winnebagos and how they are like houses on wheels which she found mystifying. All in all, it was a top-notch, very memorable evening. It's funny how setting aside a time and making it something special can turn what would otherwise be normal activities for us into something really grand. I've been to that playground a million times, but I'll always remember going there with her last night and watching her run around squealing, "Mother daughter date!!" over and over.

Cupcakes!!