Day 198 The Perfect Mom Project

Today is Mommy/Daughter day. Aly has the day off of school, and we are planning on doing a little shopping and hanging out together. I love the mother/daughter outings with my girls. The special time with each one of them alone is very precious to me. It is always a great chance to get to know them and to give them some one on one time too.

As the younger girls get older I am beginning to enjoy this time with them, I have had this special time with Ashleigh for a while and now I am able to enjoy the same thing with Aly and Avery. When they were younger the dynamic of our time out together was different. The focus was on the destination more than the time together. We would go to the park so that they could play, or go to a movie (probably Disney) or sometimes the library. Anything that we did would involve keeping the girls entertained.

 Now my younger girls are old enough that I can go out to eat with them or shopping or even for a walk and we are able to just talk to each other. This is the part of the circle of family life that I truly enjoy. I am phasing out of the full on parenting and moving into the guide and mentor phase. I am now able to walk beside the girls and not lead them as much. I feel good about who they are and the choices that they making. This is the final flight of their growing up years, from now on they are working on the "where do I go from here?" phase. This is not to say that I am throwing up my hands and giving up, but I do feel confident in whom they are becoming and I trust them.

 I enjoy my time with Ashleigh so much, when we are together we laugh and talk and share who we are with each other. We are not only Mother and Daughter we are now friends. I am in love with this time in our life together. The best part about my younger girls stepping into this phase with us is that now instead of a single scoop cone I will have a triple scoop of delicious Mommy/Daughterness! Yum!

 So, off I go today skipping down the path of motherhood hand in hand with my sweet middle daughter. Realistically I know that since the younger two are still in their teens we have a few more rocky roads to go down, but at the end of the road will be the sweetness of a relationship that I never knew with my own mom. Perhaps that is what makes my relationships with the girls the most special, that so far I have been able to create a relationship with my girls from scratch. I did not have a parenting schematic to follow, so I was just winging it. Whatever it is that has brought me to this point, I love it and I am looking forward to a good day and a great lifetime with these beautiful young ladies.