Date Night

Here's how it all got started. One night, while putting Michaela to bed, Jimmy sat with her on the couch upstairs and, instead of reading books, they chatted for a long time. Michaela poured her 6-yr old heart out to her dad, and they both enjoyed a one-on-one heart-to-heart so much that they decided they needed a date night out together to spend some more time with each other. For days, Michaela talked about their impending date night. She said, "We need a date night because me and Daddy never get to talk anymore." She said, "Daddy likes all of us but sometimes he likes to talk to just me." When Saturday rolled around and we called her inside from playing with her friends, I took Michaela upstairs to dress for her date with Daddy. It was a hysterical scene. First she wanted a fancy dress-up dress and pulled out last year's Christmas dress. I said I thought she should go more casual, since Daddy was wearing jeans. She pulled out outfit after outfit and began to get nervous about finding just the right outfit. I was able to convince her that sometimes it's fun to wear blue jeans with a girly top on date night. She finally relented and we got the perfect outfit on. Then we did her hair up with special glittery clips. Then came the shoe decision. She brought 3 pairs of shoes downstairs to my bedroom and stood in front of my full length mirror to try on all 3 with her outfit. The whole time she was yelling at Daddy not to look until she was ready for him. She had no idea that she was being a caricature of a 25-yr old getting ready for a date! It really made me realize how much of this stuff comes naturally to women of all ages!

She and Daddy did get out together. They went to Barnes and Noble where Michaela picked out 2 Barbie books and a Tangled book for herself, a My Little Pony book and playmat for Sophia, and 2 books for Alex: the first trip to the moon (non-fiction) and Shiloh (fiction) because it has a picture of a boy and a beagle on the front. Then the 2 of them went to their favorite Mexican restaurant and shared chips and salsa. They said they sat in a booth and Michaela caught her dad up on all that's going on in her life. They came home elated and promised each other another date night soon.