One of the aspects I failed to mention was the whole over-dramatic crying thing.
Hence this story :)
Oh, and please enjoy the cute pictures of the girls that are interspersed!
Last week, I told you about our trip to the zoo. Going to the zoo was just one of the many fun things we did while hanging out with Aaron's family.
I mean, we stayed at a hotel with a water park that was perfect for little girls!
In addition to the zoo, we went to a children's museum, got to watch the Disney channel, rode on elevators, went out to eat, and played in the game room.
All of this was done in the awesome company of grandparents and an aunt, uncle, and cousins they don't get to see as often as anyone would like.
Of course, we had an amazing time which naturally made it very, very hard to leave.
There was crying.
Lots and lots of crying.
Now, I do my best to keep in mind that how I respond to something that's a "big deal" to a 7 year old goes a long way to building trust with her. If I blow off something that seems like a "little deal" to me, but it's actually a "big deal" to her, she's not going to want to tell me what her "big deals" are when she's a teenager.
Needless to say, I want to know all of those things!
So, when Leah was sobbing on the bed about missing her grandparents and cousins, I sat beside her and rubbed her back.
I told her how glad I am that she loves her family.
And that I know how hard it is to say goodbye to people you love.
And that it's okay to be sad about those things.
But, more feelings came out.
Like how much Leah is going to miss the water slide.
In case you were wondering, it's a lot. She's going to miss the water slide a lot.
She's also reeeeeeeally going to miss watching Jake and the Neverland Pirates.
At that point, the crying had been going on for probably 10 minutes. Maggie joined in, because nothing is more fun than crying with a friend.
Maybe this wasn't our finest parenting moment, but Aaron and I decided to add a little background music by way of lyrics from a couple of songs from the early 2000s.
Time of Your Life by Green Day and Closing Time by Semisonic in case you were curious.
Leah, wailing: I'm going to miss the water sliiiiiiiiiiide!
Me, rubbing her back and singing: It's something unpredictable, but in the end is right...
Leah, crying: We don't have the Disney Channel and I love Jake and the Neverland Piraaaaaates!
Me: I hope you had the time of your life.
Leah took a short crying break as we left the room, so Maggie picked up where she left off.
Aaron held Maggie's hand on the way out and sang, "Closing time...I-I want my dad to take me home...I-I want my dad to take me home."
Yeah, he switched the lyrics up to fit the situation. Creative license is nice like that.
As we walked down the hall, Leah trailed behind a little...holding her bear and blanket.
Aaron glanced back to check on her, and he saw her pause. She turned, looked longing back at the closed door of room 3002 and gave it a little farewell wave.
Drama and feelings galore.
I dropped back and held her hand as we took the elevator one last, dramatic, tear filled time.
We took one more picture in front of the hotel (and by "we," I mean not me, because our camera was in the car) and got into the minivan to head for home.
As we were getting in, Gracie started fake crying.
She stopped and robustly laughed.
"JUST KIDDING!!!" she exclaimed.
And laughed some more.
Oh.my.goodness.
I don't even know what to say about that...except that she does crack me up.
But yeah, Leah and Maggie tag team cried for about a half an hour on the way home.
They alternated crying about the big 3: missing their family, the water park, and Jake and the Neverland Pirates.
I said sensitive mom things and emotions were eventually reined in.
That was about 45 minutes of crying, in case you were interested in statistics.
Whew! Parenting little girls is not for the faint of heart.
Anyway.
What songs would you have for the soundtrack of your life?
I'm linking up with Blair at Wild and Precious.
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