Dinner Date with Miss E

This afternoon was Miss E's final kindergarten parent-teacher conference (where exactly did this year go by the way...). Let me just say that the highest praise you can hear for your child from their teacher is "she reminds me of me when I was a little kid". Oh yes. My heart was warm and I left there feeling an overwhelming sense of pride and happiness with my little girl.

Then I got home. My in-laws had stopped by on their way to visit some friends and Miss E was kind of in a tizzy. She doesn't love unplanned things and her reaction to the stress is to be rude and mean to all around her. So as I am trying to talk to my in laws, she is yelling at me to tell her about her conference, being rude to her brother and generally displaying the manners of a 2 year old. It was a bit disappointing to say the least but she and I left to go to gymnastics class, we talked about it and it was done with (for now). 

Kids. Isn't that the way it goes? One minute you could not be more proud, the next not so much.

Anyhoo....after class we headed into Portland to pick up the 3 lovely camera lenses I am renting for the weekend. I'm getting a new one but have no idea what they are like so I'm renting the top three contenders to try them out. We picked them up and then she and I went out to dinner.

And this ended up being the most wonderful time. Miss E kept saying that this was the "fanciest restaurant" she had ever been to. Even though the service was "Portland-slow" (slow but with no real reason it should be) she waited patiently and we chatted for about 2 hours straight. About school, what kinds of food she likes, her friends, what first grade will be like, my trip to Spain, adventures she wants to have.... about everything.  I'm so glad that I didn't let the manners slip earlier in the day ruin our dinner. I was about to cancel as a consequence for the behavior and according to most parenting books I should have but then we would have missed out on this great bonding experience. Plus, I know my daughter and a great evening out with just her and I will do more to improve her behavior than any punishment would.  And it gave me great joy. Joy to see her ordering for herself. Talking to the waiter. Trying all my food even though she is usually super picky. Just joy in being there and enjoying my kid.