To Be Eight Again

It is always a fascination for me how my children always find ways to make me sit back in awe and wonder: Was I ever like that?

My youngest daughter Meg had her 8th Birthday on Friday and it had been decided that it would be a day for just Megan and Mommie to go out without anyone else. The day was going to include lunch and shopping where she would be allowed to pick out her Birthday presents. Now I had my reservations about letting her pick her gifts because that would take the surprise factor out of the whole thing, but she seemed ok with it so we went with it.

Rainy and wet was how the day looked like it was going to be, but Megan was so excited I am not even sure she noticed. Lunch was a pretty easy thing to decide on because she said she wanted a sandwich. Didn’t have a particular kind in mind, just a sandwich. I thought that we would go to the Iron Horse because the servers there are always very attentive when we bring the kids in and depending on who was our server the hot chocolate would have extra whip cream. All went according to plan.

Our waitress turned out to be May and Megan was excited because the year before we had been in on May’s Birthday and Megan had made her a Birthday card. Drinks were ordered first with me having coffee, black, and Meg had the hot chocolate (it came out with extra whip cream as predicted) We ordered an Italian sandwich to split with french fries along with Cheese Sticks for an appetizer. According to Meg is was the best food she had eaten in awhile and that this would now be what she ordered every time we ate there. As usual the portions were larger than either of us could finish so we had to take some home.

Now we didn’t want to carry the food with us so that meant taking it back to the truck which was parked in the City Parking lot. It meant walking a bit in the rain, but we had already done that getting there so it wasn’t a bit deal. Megan wanted to run everywhere, so she was pretty much pulling me along everywhere we went. So it was back to the truck to drop off the food and then off to shop!

Since we did get a bit chilly on the way our first stop was going to be the Plaza Shops so we could warm up and possibly do some shopping if we found anything interesting inside. It had been a while since I had actually browsed any of the shops in the Plaza (we are usually just walking through or using the restrooms). We found a great shop called the Papillon Paper Emporium Megan found some things she just couldn’t live without and I will be back to find note cards to use for thank you’s etc.

Our main shopping goal though was to get to Del Sol on Sherman because she wanted to pick out some color changing fingernail polish, so that was where we “ran” to next. Craig the owner of the store was great with Meg. Showing her how to use the built in UV lights to make things change color and even taught her a lesson on how boys and girls think differently (he was right on the money, but if you want to know what it was you will have to go ask him yourself, not going to spoil it here). She chose her nail polish and found a ring she just had to have and because it was her birthday Craig let her pick out another ring for free. She was beaming the whole time we were in the shop, but as we left and Craig reminded her that everything in the shop changed color even the bag that her things were in you should have been there to witness what I did.

As we stepped out onto the sidewalk and she looked down at her bag changing from clear to purple I swear there was a light coming off of her that stopped the rain and my heart. She looked at me with a smile from ear to ear and said “This is a Birthday that I will never forget!”

I thought to myself then and now…when do we lose that…when do we become these grown up walking talking automatons that are too busy to appreciate something as simple as changing color from clear to purple?

This was a Birthday that I will never forget!