Remodeling This Life

Last night, as we finished up our dinner, I looked over at my daughter and told her I have a surprise for her when she’s done with her meal. She loves surprises. You could tell her that you have a surprise for her and then put brussel sprouts in front of her and she’d be happy and eat them. So she was a little bit excited. She thinks it’s great that there is a surprise, but she always wants me to spoil it right away. “What is it? What is my surprise?” I told her she had to be patient and finish her food and then I’d show her.

She quickly gobbled up her tilapia and broccoli and I told her to put her shoes on, we were going for a walk. She did and we headed out the door together, full of questions “Where are we going? Are we just going for a walk? What are we doing?”

As we headed out the front walk, she clutched my hand, her tiny fingers woven between mine. She squeezed hard and started walking quickly in anticipation. As we walked, hand in hand, with her floppy sunhat flapping in the breeze, I settled into my stride and smiled quietly. More chatter from her. “Oh, mommy, this is SO fun! I love mommy time!” As we strode down our street toward the end, I asked her if she knew what we were doing and she very quietly and hopefully replied, “Are we going for ice cream?” and looked at me with her big eager eyes while I slowly nodded.

She picked up her pace and kept doing little 3 year old shouts of glee as we got closer to the ice cream shoppe. We walked up to the window and she ordered what she wanted all by herself and then I ordered mine. “What’s taking so long? Where’s my ice cream? Are we going to sit right here at these picnic tables and eat together?” Finally, our ice creams were ready and I paid before we chose a big red picnic table to sit at.

My beautiful daughter and I sat next to each other quietly eating our ice cream, occasionally stopping to ask the other how their’s tasted. Then, so fleeting, but to last a lifetime, she leaned over to me, put her hand around my arm and said “Thank you so much for taking me out to get ice cream. I love you so much, mommy.”

We finished our ice cream as I wiped tears from my eyes, thinking about how quickly moments like these will be gone. The days of glee over ice cream and hand holding with my daughter will slip all too fast away from me. As we got to the street to walk the couple blocks back home, she started to run ahead. Little feet going as fast as they could, hat flapping in the wind, shrieks of laughter as she hollered to me to catch up. I didn’t want to catch up. I wanted to watch her run. As much as I don’t want her to ever get away from me, I can’t help but love every ounce of her independent spirit. I let her get a bit ahead and then I ran to catch up. As we raced along beside each other and waved to neighbors, I hoped we’d never get home. I hoped we’d just keep running side by side and giggling forever.