Mom, I just love you....

I spent the whole day with Kailin yesterday. Just the two of us. We started out with Cricket (Chinese School). On the way there we were listening to her favorite kids' songs cd. We giggled and laughed as we tried to sing the ABC's really fast and then she giggled harder when I tried to sing it backwards (really fast) and failed miserably. We sang about "This Old Man" and where he was playing knick-knack, clapped and sang along with BINGO, and listened to her all time favorite "Roll Over" ("There were 10 in the bed and the little one said, 'roll over, roll over' so they all rolled over and one fell out; there were 9 in the bed...." you get the picture...) at least 9 times. After Cricket she had a friend's birthday party to attend, so we were off to Mayfair Mall to Build-a-Bear for that. She had a great time and then we enjoyed pizza and cake after the party. I was sure she was going to conk out on the way home, but she stayed awake almost the whole ride. When we got home, she crashed on the couch and we snuggled up to watch Mickey for just a little while. Probably four times randomly throughout the day I heard, "Mom?... I just love you." You know, I just love her, too! It was the best gift she could have given me. She's never short on "I love yous", but it's something special when it's entirely unsolicited.

I'd promised her "dinner out" and we headed off to McDonald's for a fine dining experience. She had a little tantrum in the grocery store over wanting an animal (again), even after I reminded her that she'd just gotten a brand new bear that very afternoon so the Big M supper club was almost a no-go, but she calmed down and that was our only little incident of the day, so I was counting my blessings! I'm so glad we went! Although it took her a little over an hour to eat (I'm sure in part because she was so tired), we had fun with it and toward the end she got herself into a little laughing fit that culminated with tooting and drooling in addition to the laughing - and then I was laughing as well (and glad not to be tooting and drooling!). I tucked her in when we got home and got one more "Mom, I just love you" before she drifted off to sleep.

I made sure to thank God in my prayers last night for blessing me so with such a special little girl. I'm always thankful for her, but I'm doubly thankful for days like yesterday that remind me just how wonderful she is.