Coffee Date.

A couple of weeks ago my little girl started coloring.  She has literally not stopped for days.  It is a first thing in the morning, last thing at night sort of thing.

In the mess of one of my recent Target receipt/coupons/handful of paper madness (can anyone sympathize with me on this one?), I got a buy one/get one free coupon for the new in-store Starbucks.  Yesterday, my girl picked out a coloring book from the dollar bin and a new package of markers.  Her old set was about shot, anyway.  She asked the kind lady for a hot chocolate.  I said, "Grande, please."  And there we sat.  Her lukewarm hot chocolate, my extra hot Cinnamon Dolce Latte.

It wasn't about the place, because honestly, we were sitting in the middle of a Target.  And it wasn't about the drinks, or the coloring, or anything that a friendly passerby could have witnessed.  It was the conversation had.  It was the intentional hour listening to her say funny things and tell me about her friends.  We didn't look up much.  Both focused on our coloring.  Away from the distraction of the messy kitchen and the loudness of her siblings, we just sat and colored and talked.  Like old friends, really.  It was the first time that I realized this little girl is no toddler.  She gets jokes and laughs and feels and thinks.

I haven't been able to get that hour out of my head, so here I write to freeze that moment.  That moment.  That special first coffee date with my little girl.

How do you connect with your little ones?  A couple of months ago, I would have never thought that coloring would be her jam.  Kids are so funny.