Priceless

Today, I had the rare pleasure of spending the day with my older daughter – just the two of us. Her school was out for Presidents’ Day, but our younger llama’s pre-school was in session, which made the occasion unique. Aside from sick days (which by their very nature cannot be enjoyed), I couldn’t remember the last time that our younger daughter went to school and the older one didn’t…so we decided to take full advantage of the opportunity.

We had first planned to go see a movie, but there weren’t any kid-friendly ones showing between 9:15 a.m. and 2:15 p.m., when we had to pick up her little sister. As it turns out, I’m glad because it gave us the chance to talk to each other instead of sitting quietly and watching OTHERS talk.

We ended up going to the presidential library located in our city to see the traveling exhibit of the miniature White House. It was incredible – a huge dollhouse with tiny replicas of the furniture, paintings, wall colors, etc. from the actual White House. The exhibit was on loan from the Smithsonian and took the creator 42 years to finish the project (what perseverance! I think I would have given up if I hadn’t completed it by year 40). Over 50 million people have seen this replica since it began touring in 1975. It was very cool and an appropriate way to honor Presidents’ Day.

Afterward, my daughter and I went to lunch, another rare treat. But the beauty of the day was not in our choice of activities but in just being together. We held hands as we walked…we talked…we laughed…and we simply enjoyed the day.

I realized that I haven’t had many days alone with our older daughter – in fact, very few since her baby sister came along when she was 18 months old. From that time on, it was always the three of us when Daddy was at work, or the four of us when he was home. Now, I have one-on-one time with our youngest because her school is only three days per week and her sister goes five – but I need to make more of an effort to spend time just with our older daughter, too.

To borrow from a popular commercial…

Admission to the presidential library: $10
Lunch at a local hamburger joint: $9
Spending the day with your daughter: priceless