A Post for Jen

I can only imagine as a parent to be separated from one of your babies would be extremely difficult.   So, I thought I'd write this post for Jen in hopes that she would feel like she spent the day with her beautiful Ari. I had the privilege of watching Ari this evening and as we speak she is cuddled up under her fort we made in Ryker's room.   When Ari got to my house I was told she had been up since 5am (wow, I didn't even realize that there was such a thing as 5 am), so a nap was probably necessary if we were going to make it through the evening with a smile :)   Ari informed me she was not tired though because Ty had just told her we were going to the RODEEEOOOO that evening and she was so excited.   I still insisted that she go lay down and at least have some quiet time before we packed up.   Within minutes she was sound asleep and not even Ryker's high pitched screeches were fazing her.  By the time we had to start loading up the car she was still in a slumber, so I had to wake her up.    I know, I know, I'm pretty sure this is a no no in babysitting 101, but we had to go.

We headed toward the rodeo and her excitement was building.   Somehow she got the idea that she was going to get to ride the horses and kept talking about how excited she was to ride the nice, slow horses.  I tried to clue her in on the probability of that not occurring tonight, but she has faith like fire!  As we were walking into the rodeo I think the heat and lack of sleep had hit her.   I started seeing the happy, smiling face turn into a pouty one and when we gave her the "cool necklace" (aka her ticket on a lanyard) to wear she was not in the mood to put it on.  I tried my tactic I had used with students.   I immediately stopped and said, "OK, we can just go back to the car and hang out there for a few hours"  She looked at me very puzzled and said, "No, I want to go to the rodeo".  I told her we couldn't go to the rodeo without the necklace on, she told me she didn't want to put her necklace on, I said OK and started walking to the car.   She looked at me, handed me the lanyard and let me put it on her, but then wanted some consoling in return.   I picked her up and her head went straight into my shoulder.   I started feeling bad and wondered if I had chosen the right tactic, but by the time we got through the gates she had that big beautiful smile on her face and was asking where the horse she was going to ride was waiting for her at. Whew :) I guess I didn't completely mess up because we had a wonderful rest of our evening.

I learned Ari is a very friendly young lady and I think she was saying hello to almost everyone that walked by that looked half friendly.   She was also telling anyone and everyone that she wanted to go ride a horse.   She went right up to one of the cowgirls and started a full on conversation with them asking, "Do you know Brianne?"  We also found out that one of the board members of the CNR and a Caldwell Police Officer love Jesus, to which Ari exclaimed, "Great!  That means you're going to heaven!"  They both laughed and said, "That's right".

The woman in front of us, whom Ari called Heather (not sure that's her name, but we went with it), was smitten with Ari and kept telling her she was going to go find Ari a nice horse to ride every time she made her way to the beer stand.   Ari would turn to me and say, "She is a very nice lady."   I thought to myself yes, she is certainly in her "happy place".  I sure wasn't complaining though because between my child who was screeching in that high pitched, make me want curl into the fetal position and hide, scream and Ari shouting at the top of her lounges, "GO COWBOY! GO COWBOY! GO COWBOY! GO COWBOY!" (Yes that was my fault,  on the way to the rodeo I told her to yell that each time they rode by....learned a valuable lesson) I was just thankful the group in front of us was turning around with smiles on their faces, let along making friends with us.

So, I just want to end with telling Jen she has raised a beautiful, sweet young girl.   I had so much fun tonight with her and as I tucked her into bed and we said our prayers I thought how blessed I am that Jen feels so comfortable with me watching her sweet baby.   I could not have asked for her to be more well behaved, especially because I know it must be tough taking orders from someone other than your mommy, but not once did she ever say to me, "you can't tell me what to do" when I would correct her.   She has such a tender heart and my favorite comment of the night was when her flip flop fell off her foot, but she grabbed it before it fell below the bleachers, she said, "God caught my shoe!   How does he do that?"  So sweet......