Girl's Night

So Peter has been away this weekend for a business planning retreat, so it has been just me and the kids. Grace and I have had a "girl's night" which requires Ben to be asleep, rootbeers (in the bottle), cheese, popcorn, and cookies. Don't ask where that food combination came from, I really don't know, but that is what we have at every "girl's night." We watched a Christmas cartoon "on demand" for 4.99, which amazingly gave Grace the creeps because of the bad guy in it. I am always amazed at what she finds scary.

It was alot of fun, I always enjoy getting to hear her thoughts and reasoning on life. She is such an inquisitive and thoughtful little thing, so we always have interesting conversation. She is really getting to the age where you can talk things out and she can listen and really dialouge with you. She has her own opinions on things and wants to be heard. Having the girl's night reminded me that even at this young age she has the need to be heard, to be affirmed, and to be seen and loved.

I think it is easy for her to get "lost" sometimes because Ben is still young and is at that cute stage where he says cute things and he is just adorable, so he garners alot of attention from everyone. Granted Grace had that same thing when she was 2, but I can see in her now that she wants that same attention, that same recognition.

I believe that her love language is quality time, she likes gifts, but nothing seems to excite her more than a date night with Daddy or a Girl's night with Mommy. What I am sure about is that we need to make them more frequent, because if her love tank is full from those times, I think that her need to copy, to be first, or to win would be less. Granted, I don't expect her not to copy Ben when he is getting a laugh or to try her own thing to get laughs and praise, but I want to make sure that she understands that she is wonderful just by being her. That she has been created uniquely beautiful and special. That she doesn't have to be #1 or do the same thing as Ben because she is wonderfully made by the Father himself. And that her worth doesn't lie in how funny she is or who is done with dinner first or who can jump the highest or run the fastest, but instead in who she is as a person. Grace is a pretty amazing little girl and I know she will be a remarkable young woman, and an astounding adult. I want to make sure that she knows Mommy thinks that way about her.