Childlike

The Man of My Dreams won tickets to the Daytona 500 in Florida, and since we could not find a sitter for the whole weekend, we opted to split the children between us and give them special child/parent time.

Because I didn't want WonderBoy to feel like he was missing wonderful things on the trip, I planned certain things that I know he loves. Our weekend has gone like this:

Man of my Dreams and WonderGirl left at 6:30 am Saturday morning. For breakfast, WonderBoy and I headed to our favorite Starbuck's where they know us by name. Then we headed home and started playing with clay, which we did for over two hours. For lunch we had a load of crinkle fries and ketchup with sandwiches on the side (the sandwiches made my conscience feel better). Then I took a 30 minute nap and sewed up some pants I needed to make while Robert played with his new clay creations. Then we jumped on the trampoline for about 30 minutes before heading in for our showers. When we were done with our showers, we loaded up and went to friends' for play time and dinner before all of us headed out to church. On the way home from church, we grabbed cookies and chocolate covered donuts. At home, we watched "The Perils of Penelope Pitstop" and dipped cookies into our milk. We topped off the night by camping on the living room floor.

This morning we woke up with the sun and enjoyed donuts and milk for breakfast. Then we spent another few hours sculpting with clay before we ate leftover pizza for lunch. After lunch we headed to the science museum where we played for a little while and then watched the documentary "Dolphins". WonderBoy loves dolphins, and this was fantastic. At that point, we were hungry, so we headed toward home, stopping by Starbuck's (where they don't know us) for a shared treat, and then walking two doors down to one of our favorite craft places to get some more clay. With clay in hand, we came home for dinner. After which, we jumped on the trampoline a bit more. When it became too dark to jump on the trampoline, WonderBoy slid into a warm tub of bubbles and played. Right now he is watching some television while I write this. Then we'll both head off to bed and get ready for tomorrow.

Tomorrow our friend Vicki is coming over to play clay (can you tell WonderBoy LOVES sculpting?), and we are going to a Mongolian restaurant for lunch. WonderBoy is the adventuresome eater in the family, and he has never been to a restaurant like that, so this will be fun. After lunch, we are going to one of his favorite parks where he can play and we can all play tennis.

I'm telling you, I really tried to make this a great weekend or him.

As we talked about the weekend, he said, "Mom, all the things we've done have been really nice and fun, but that isn't what made it great."

"Really?" I asked. "What made it great?"

"I had you all to myself. I loved just having your attention and having you all to myself."

Yes, that melted my mother's heart. It also touched my child's heart that wants my Father's attention to be enough instead of getting all wound up in what He is doing for me or giving to me.

Praying to be more childlike so I can see the joy and delight of having a Father and His attention more than anything else....