Window Shopping

Usually weekends are reserved for doing family things, all four of us together. It can be a huge challenge trying to allot time for yourself, your partner, and your children individually. Vanessa gets plenty of one-on-one time with me and is probably too young to truly appreciate the undivided attention I give to her all day. 

Now that football season has begun again, Matt is content just hanging out at the house on Sundays and watching that. I have to let him have his down time too, even though it's so not my preferred way to spend the day. Anyway, I decided to use him watching football as an excuse to take Natalie out, just the two of us.

She is such a perfect mix of sporty and girly. She will play sports all day long and loves a physical challenge, but she adores shopping and accessories and girly things. I love that. 

We mostly window shopped but I did buy her Dippin Dots ice cream, something she has been wanting to try for a while now. We walked around the mall for about three hours, and I'm pretty sure she would have loved to keep going to a few more stores. One really fun thing that she got to try was a virtual roller coaster. She paid for it with her own money that she made selling lemonade and that my father-in-law gave for one of her silly monthly birthdays, and she said it was worth the money. It was $20 for maybe 10 minutes but she said she would have paid 50, even 100.

We went to a jewelry store and Kate Spade, and she checked the prices of everything. She is such a price conscious person. She will ponder a buying decision and weigh her options to figure out what gets her the most bang for her buck. Not that I was going to buy her anything in any of those stores, I just think it's cute how she will see the price tag of something and say, "wow that's super overpriced" or "oh, that's a pretty good deal." My mother-in-law tells the story of how when Natalie was little and they went to the Dollar Store Natalie asked, "Mam Mam, where's the clearance section?" because everything being $1 was a bargain enough.

 Another thing that was really funny to me was she asked me what they sell at Victoria's Secret. I told her underwear and bras and she said, "oh I thought it was-" and then I jokingly interjected "secrets?!" She laughed and said, "well they kind of are secrets, because no one sees them." She is just such a fun, funny, silly, sweet, smart, witty little girl. 

We had such a good time together and she was in a great mood the whole time. Even when we got home and I had to repeat myself asking her to do things, instead of getting sassy that I got frustrated a bit she was apologetic. 

I really truly hope that her and I can always remain close. I fret about how things between us will change as she gets older and becomes a teenager. I know she won't always want to spend so much time with me, and I'll certainly be her last choice to hang out at the mall with one day. I just really want her to be able to talk to me and know that I've got her back and will love and support her no matter what.