a date, a fish, and a little girl.

Life has been a little chaotic for me lately. Unfortunately, it's affected my mothering capabilities and I've struggled with parenting out of reaction instead of with my heart. I had a wake-up call to this and realized how much Vienna has been hurting as a result. She is a pretty sensitive little girl and is pretty affected by the atmosphere, so the two of us have been off--I've been wondering why she's been giving me so much attitude and she was probably wondering if Mommy liked her or not. :( We were both in desperate need of some quality time together--uninterrupted--to connect. So we went on a little mother-daughter date. :)

It was pretty cute...Vienna picked out a dance dress to wear and insisted on bringing her purse with her wish-bear (new favorite stuffed animal) inside of it. And yes, she had to carry it everywhere with us. :)

She held onto my hand the entire time we were not in the car...it was obvious that she really needed the one-on-one time with me.

I took her to the store to look at pets...of course, we walked out with a little goldfish to take home--her first pet. Vienna named him "Sharky" and insisted that he come out to eat with us.

I obliged, and took Vienna and her fish out to dinner. She carried him to and from the car, the poor fish sloshing around inside the massive bag with her little kid steps and hops. Our waitress totally pleased Vienna by including Sharky in conversation, Vienna was pretty excited about him and checked on him in-between bites to make sure he was alive and swimming.

It was a simple date, but totally fun and I was able to give my 100% attention to her and just enjoy the time together. We colored at the restaurant, talked...she snuggled against me and totally soaked up the moments we had together. It really filled both our hearts, and she felt pretty special to have mommy's full attention. 

It just reminds me, yet again, of how important it is to stay connected with your children. It's so easy to fall into routine, say no all the time, react out of impulse, and get caught up in everyday life and to do's. But investing in their little souls is what's important...and I find that I constantly have to check myself and my attitude several times a day to make sure my heart is in the right place. A lot of times it's not. I'm working on it...

Parenting these delicate little souls is hard work...