just what we needed

friday night is usually date night, 

but wade was in canada skiing,

so nikki an i got to have a date.

we've been rubbing each other the wrong way the past couple of weeks so i thought we'd better spend some alone time,

no piano practice, no dance, no school projects, or spelling, or room cleaning, or chores, or whatever else can vex or frustrate one or the other of us.

just us.

aaaaaaah.  it was just what we needed.

we ate out at one of our favorite restaurants, the one wade hates and never wants to go to so i always reserve it for girls' outings... not that those happen ever anymore, but this certainly counted as a girls' night out in my book.

nik instructed me in the proper way to roll your eyes.

i don't think i've got it down as well as she does,

but she did give me some good tips to work on.

really.  she had a list.

in the makeup store nikki couldn't get this perfume to work.

it had no smell.  

it wasn't until the sixth spray that i realized it was body glitter, not perfume.  man was her face be-dazzeled!

we shopped around

then we hit claire's (which store i really can't stand, but what little girl doesn't love that place?)

followed by very frappy frappuccinos.

i like vanilla bean with skim milk.  

nik likes strawberry with 2%.

whipped cream on top, of course.

then we went up and down the escalator approximately 6 times.

nikki thought she was in heaven.

why do kids like that so much?

then to the pet store where nikki drooled over the parakeets and came up with a plan as to how she might earn one.

we'll see.

"did you know parakeets are easily trained and are natural clowns, mom?"

i do now.

then we went to one more store where nikki confirmed it really was her lucky day after she lost her scarf, searched the entire store, searched the car, then went back into the store to ask the store clerk who, miraculously, had it up front.

i think it was actually my lucky day.

 the best part of the whole night for me, and i think for nik too, was that nikki got to just talk and talk and talk the whole time about whatever she wanted to without having to take turns with any other kids and without interruptions.

a couple of times she stopped and asked if she was talking too much.

i just smiled and shook my head.

what a sweet little lady that nikki is.

(and when i say "lady" i don't mean to imply that she's lady-like, since at dinner she also taught me the art of passing gas without making a sound... or a smell.  i'm very skeptical of that one.)