Mommy Daughter Date

Brad showed me this clip from a family picture and I just about died. My little Amalie is not so little anymore.  She looks so old!  And so gorgeous!!  I showed her this picture and asked, "Don't you think we look alike?"

"No," she said.

I can see it quite clearly, but maybe she can't see past the age difference.

I love having a daughter.  Amalie is a lot like me in many ways which works out well for me as a mother.  I know a little bit better how to deal with her (sometimes). 

I've been hoping for the day that we could do "girl things" together.  I planned a date a year ago for Brad and I to attend the BYU Young Ambassadors performance.  I love singing and dancing.  But I could tell poor Brad was suffering through.  He was a good sport and never said a word or complained, but I could just see that he was not enjoying himself in the least.  So it dampened my experience a little as well, knowing my idea of enjoyment was torture to him.

So this year, I decided to take Amalie to the performance.

She loved it!  I am so thrilled she is finally old enough to do girl things together and thrilled she loves singing and dancing just like me.  My only sadness was that I wanted to be onstage, dancing and singing as well.  I never pursued that sort of thing in college. I miss doing those kinds of things so much! 

The next day, Amalie had an opportunity to perform as well.  She had been asking me for months if she could sing, "I am like a star" in church.  I kind of ignored her for the first little while, thinking she was too young and it would be too much for her to handle.  But after she did so well in the Primary Program, standing up and speaking her lines in front of 200 people, I figured that she at least knew what she was getting into.  We arranged to sing in November and then December, but had to cancel because of other things going on, but finally, finally, on Sunday she got her chance.

We practiced with our awesome pianist who was so patient as we went over and over and over the song.  Then on Sunday, I explained that after my friend Bonnie was done speaking, we would go up and sing.  Amalie started to look a little nervous.  Brad and I both gave her encouraging words and I looked over to see that she had drawn a rainbow on a piece of paper and on the rainbow, she had written the words, "It's ok, Amalie."

I thought that was so cute!  This girl amazes me how she handles hard things!  When the time came, we walked up, put Amalie up on the step, pulled the microphone down, with Amalie right in front of it.  I stepped to the side and tried to sing softly, there for moral support, but wanting Amalie to be heard as a solo.

It was beautiful!  I was so proud of her, at six years old, getting up and singing a song in front of two hundred people.  Awesome.