Mother/Daughter Date

So much of my time is put into Joshua and his needs that I don't get much time to just enjoy Rebekah and hang out with her. Many times Rebekah's actions indicate some level of jealousy, although she also adores her little brother very much. I decided it was time to have a date with my daughter and to give her some undivided attention.

Yesterday ToysRUs was having a Thomas & Friends playdate, so Darrin kept Joshua at home while I took Rebekah out for the day. We arrived ToysRUs in time to hear a story then Rebekah spent quite a bit of time playing with the train table and Thomas & Friends engines. She was so patient as she waited for other children to move their trains out of her way. In fact, she was so patient that I even encouraged her just to walk around a child because he was not moving anywhere.

One little boy who was playing was grabbing engines from other children, including Rebekah, and although the mom continued to harp on him then force the stolen toys out of his hands and made threats to leave the store and go home, she would give the child multiple chances, distract him to another area of the Thomas section or even the store, but never followed through on her threats. No wonder he pitched so many fits!

Rebekah played with the train table for a good while then decided to color a Thomas & Friends coloring sheet. Finally we decided to walk around the store a bit then head out for lunch. Don't you know who was leaving in the parking lot when we were? That mom and her boy! They were at ToysRUs long before we were, and the little boy was still throwing fits in the parking lot. I know I've failed as a mom many times and have learned through experience that you have to be consistent with your kids. I was so proud of Rebekah and her behavior at TRU. She was so polite, and she really had a nice time.

After leaving the Thomas playdate we headed over to Chick-fil-A for lunch. I had to keep encouraging Rebekah to eat because after one chicken nugget she told me she was finished and wanted to play on the indoor playground. After she ate she spent quite a while playing, climbing, and sliding. Rebekah looked tired after playing for about an hour, but she wanted to continue our day out together. We then headed over to the mall where we did some shopping and finally to Wal-Mart to do my weekly grocery shopping. After all that we returned home. I asked her before bed what her favorite thing of the day that we did was. Was it the Thomas playdate? Or was it Chick-fil-A? No, it was Wal-Mart!