a {sweet} girl after my own heart

I understand that life demands focus away from ourselves, many times, and attention is given to the person in the spotlight.  Truthfully, I'm personally okay with that most of the time.  I'm not typically a 'spotlight' kind of girl.  Neither is Nator.

However, even by those standards, so much attention on sister {between a new tap shoe fitting, talk of competition try-outs, Gracie's hip-hop class, try-outs, and waiting for results} last Friday was beginning to take its toll.  Understandably so.

So, as soon as we made it home after finding out that Gracie made the team, I whisked Nator away for a lil' Mommy/daughter time.  We'd talked of going on Mother/Daughter, Father/Daughter dates before... but honestly, by the time we get the whole family together, we just want to be together.

This moment seemed like the perfect opportunity.  Sometimes, you just have to act upon a good, spontaneous intention, right?  It was also a good time for Gracie and Daddy to catch up on some Lego Batman, something Gracie was looking forward to as soon as Daddy returned from Alaska.

This girl is up for almost any adventure, but I knew where to score some points.  Our local bookstore!  Have I mentioned Nator's love of books before?  ;)

She says her dream room would look like a library.  I {heart} this girl... and sometimes envy those smart brain cells of hers.

She was so excited!  The only dilemma was which. book{s}. to. pick!  She finally settled on {Disney's} Tangled {junior edition}, Charlotte's Web, and  Big-Sister Blues (English Roses #5).  There's no correlation to having sister blues, she just likes the series.  :)  She has a list of classics she'd like to pick next time.

Another thing Nator and I have in common?  Cheesecake.  Pumpkin cheesecake, to be exact.  At the nearby Starbucks, I let her pick whatever she wanted.  We could split it.  {Surely, you didn't think I'd lost all sense of self control? Ha!}

There was not a spare seat in the house, so we got it 'to go'.  This worked out even better...

Oh, did I mention that it was Cheesecake Factory cheesecake??  Licking the plate is almost a must in the privacy of your own vehicle.

She enjoyed the fact that she could join mom in the front seat, too.  One day, they'll be old enough to sit up there with us all the time.  For now, those air bags keep them in the back seat.

She thought mom was cool for letting her lick clean the plate, but after shooing me away a couple times I got the hint that the mama-razzi wasn't welcome to document said activity.  Oh well, good thing I didn't. ;)

This lil' girl tells us all the time {and even again last night at dinner}, "I believe God put me in the perfect family.  I wouldn't want to be anywhere else, with any other family, sitting at any other dinner table."

Let's just soak that in for a moment.  Sigh...

On this date, I also let her pick out something for Gracie, as a congratulatory gift.  I figured that would help Nator feel like an active part of sister's activities.  Nator decided on the dance bag that Gracie begged asked for the day before when trying on tap shoes.  It may have had something to do with the hot pink and zebra pattern.  Cute, I must say... and Nator couldn't wait to see Gracie's expression when giving it to her.  Priceless.

We had a great time, giggling, just the two of us.  I'm looking forward to my next date! :)