mother-daughter time

Piglet and I have had a lot of togetherness lately.   We had our road trip on Friday/Saturday and I picked her up early from school today and Russ didn’t get home until after 7:00, so it was just us.  I have always been smitten with this girl, but the more time I spend with her, the more I learn about her, and the more I adore her.   Lately (before this weekend), much of our time together has been stressful – I’m caught between two worlds.   When I’m at work, I miss her so much, so I get distracted.  Then when I’m at home, I’m worried about the things I need to do for work and I don’t always cherish the time I have with her because I’m distracted.  I have been struggling with this for a while, and some days are better than others, but I am really thankful for our recent quality time.

A few outtakes from our time over the last few days:

On Saturday night, I decided to wait until her bedtime to hit the road back from Kathryn’s house.  But since it was late, I needed caffeine to make sure we both made it back alive.    Caffeine comes in liquid form.   Trip time = three hours.  Problem:  halfway into the trip, I needed to make a pit stop.  But Piglet was sound asleep.  Hmmm.  Can’t leave her in the car alone.  Don’t want to wake her up.   But I was getting desperate.   So I stopped, put on her shoes, picked her up, carried her inside.  She stood in front of me, looking like a complete zombie.  I wish I had a picture of that, because it was so stinkin’ cute.  We made a quick trip of it, and she was asleep again before we got back on the interstate.

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When I put her in the car after school today she had on socks and shoes.  When I opened the door to get her back out once we were home, she had on shoes with no socks.    When I took a double take and then looked back at her face, she was grinning a sly grin – that girl is trouble.  but funny trouble.  for now.

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This afternoon, I decided to paint my toe nails.  She watched very intently at this strange practice.  Then after a few minutes of looking on and off at my toes, she said:  “Paint Piglet’s toenails”  So I told her that she had to be really still so I could paint them and they could dry.  I was highly doubtful (and if you’ve ever spent time with her, you know that “still” is not her strong suit).  But she actually did stay still.  So now we have matching pedicures.