She said what?

Girl's Night Out. That's one of my many favorite things to do with the clever and precocious Miss M. Just the two of us, all dressed up and searching out marvelous adventure downtown. Dessert at a fancy restaurant is a must and the more decadent the dessert, the better it is for us. This brownie with fruit sauce is just what we were craving. See that ziggy little stripe down the right side? Yep, that's the first thing she did when the plate was put before us. She dragged her finger through the chocolate, tasted it, gave an 'mmmmm' of approval and said, "I had to do that."

Later this night we experienced a little of our own fairy tale when we saw Cinderella at the Civic Theatre. It was beautiful and felt sort of magical in the theater with the rich sets and beautiful costumes. We were perched right at the front of the balcony, which gave Miss M a fabulous view of the play. It wasn't long before this little girl was completely smitten with.....the prince? But, I thought this was about Cinderella? Oh no, her royal highness Miss M fell completely head-over-heels in love with the prince. I'm not sure she even realized the story was about Cinderella.

As we gathered our coats after the play a very kind woman mentioned to Miss M that she would be able to meet Cinderella and the prince if she walked down the stairs to the lower level. You should have seen that little girls eyes light up. We had a tiny wait before it was our turn to meet the characters and Miss M spent that time craning and straining to see around the crowd to get glimpses. She was funny, I tell ya. Finally, after what seemed like hours to her, she was able to meet them. She was glowing....and grinning.....and giddy. Look at this picture!

Is she not in love? She hugged him and chatted for a bit while I took pictures. Oh, my gosh, he even let her try on his crown.

Then we had to look at the pictures right! now! As we were leaving she ran over to give the prince one last hug...she told him she loved him...he said he loved her and now, in Miss M's world, his fate is forever sealed with hers. She skipped along the sidewalk all the way back to the car and didn't stop talking about her prince until she fell asleep.

The next morning, as we were making breakfast together, I started singing a song from the play, "do I love you because you're wonderful, or are you wonderful, because I love you?" Now get this, and I'm not kidding here, she annouced with complete wonder in her voice, "that's the song the prince was singing....to me!" How did this happen? How did she go to this play and have an entire audience and the cast disappear except for her and the prince? Maybe I was still there with her, but I dunno. The only thing I can think of is that as he's singing he's projecting to the back of the theater and there's little Miss M, perched on the edge of the balcony thinking he's looking right at her? I find it truly amazing and I have no idea how this happened, but I'm thinking the little girl is entitled to her own fairy tale. I did say it was magical in the theater. Stay tuned for more fairy tale updates through the years to come.

Here's a quick photo of another favored tradition between us...baking up yummies. This is a cranberry bread made with flax meal. Pretty delicious too.

Later, I asked Miss M if she would like to learn how to embroider. I thought it might be hard for her and I said as much since this would be her first time using a needle. Right? Difficult for Miss M? No, it was a piece of cake for her. I showed her how to draw a simple pine tree shape and once she drew hers, I copied it to a piece of muslin using a transfer pencil. I sat behind her on the stool for two stitches just to show her how to come up and go back down through the fabric as she followed the line and then she took over. One time I pointed out to her that she was poking willy nilly and that would make it difficult if she found the right spot. For the rest of her time she would say, "poking willy nilly" to reminder herself or "ouch, poked myself". Yeah, we all do that. Still, I'm blown away by how well she did with her first time stitching. Will you look at this?

While she stitched I kept myself busy (and away from her stitching) by cutting out fabric to turn her first embroidery into a pretty little pillow she could keep.

Later, she set the pillow on my bed with my other pillows and said, "ohhh, what a pretty pillow family."

What's not to love about spending time alone with this girl?