Robert has been taking on a few week long trips again. I was feeling overwhelmed with the stress of doing it all on my own, especially since two of those trips were back to back. I swear I would have never been able to survive, if it wasn't for my sweet Laine. She held the baby when I needed another set of hands. She helped with dinner and did all her chores without having to be asked. Every night she told me that if I needed any help, I was to wake her up and ask for it. I never did, but the thought was so sweet, I nearly cried.
Alaina is such a sweet soul and she has a natural way with all her brothers. She is constantly building Ethan up and comforting Austin when he falls. She is Jason's BFF and she is the center of his very universe. She can magically put Emmett to sleep any time she hold him. (Austin still refuses to learn how to properly hold him on his lap...it always looks like a bit of a torture hold when he does it.)
She is kind and thoughtful. In short. She's just about the most perfect daughter I could have ever even dreamed of.
To reward her awesomeness, when Robert came back into town, Alaina and I went out for an evening on the town. We first went to the Bellagio and walked through their display. Then we hung out on the strip, watching the street performers and stayed on to watch the fountains.
It was so much fun just walking down the street, holding hands. Alaina always has so much to talk about and is funny and witty. We walked past the Bellagio and up through all of the insanely expensive stores that line the inside mall. Alaina wanted to walk into a Prada store to check out all of the purses. I had told her just how much some of those purses cost and she wanted to see them for herself. When we first walked in we were pretty much ignored by the sales associates. Why wouldn't we be? We were in raggy old t-shirts and falling apart sandals. My current purse was bought at Target. We were obviously not the right type of customer.
However, the moment Alaina walked in, she started to inspect each purse very carefully. Then she'd ask on of the sales people all sorts of questions about the purse. What is it made of? What does it look like inside. How much does it cost? With every answer, she looked interested but not overly impressed. Man. She was good. Before you knew it, we had one lady following her around the store. The woman talked directly to her and pretty much ignored me. Maybe she thought I was a nanny or something and Alaina was some kind of heiress. Lainy had her eating out of the palm of her hand. After inspecting nearly every single purse they had on display, Alaina thanked the woman who was helping her and sauntered out of the store. The last purse she had inquired about was a $14,000 snake skin purse. She looked over to me and said, "$14,000? I'd rather save up for college!"
Yup...I'd rather she do that as well. I thought our window shopping was over, but the next store over was a Tiffany's. Alaina pulled the exact same routine in that store. A seasoned little shopper. Alaina, I was ignored. She asked so many questions that she had, at one point, three of the workers grouped around her, trying to figure out exactly what she was interested in.
Hilarious.
After we left a store full of disappointed sales clerks in our dust, we headed out to a fun Japanese restaurant. I felt a little guilty taking a kid to such a nice restaurant, but the girl seriously earned it. Plus, she settled in, right at home. What kind of sushi would she like? Could she get the Miso soup? The child is so precocious. I just love her for it.
After dinner, we both grabbed a mint and after a minute she asked, "Mom. Has your mint dissipated yet?" Hee hee. Dissipated.
Here she wanted a picture of her eye so she could see if our eye matched or not. They don't. Mine is a ton more wrinkly. :)
Alaina is always using the most interesting vocabulary. I love that she is constantly trying out new words. She showed me a picture of a dragon that she drew yesterday. She asked me what I thought and I told her it was an awesome picture. "Yeah." She agreed, "I think it should be hung up in a museum." I laughed and said, "Well. At least the fridge!" With a look of horror she grabbed the picture back. "Not the FRiDGE! That isn't NOBLE!" Noble or not, that is probably where it is going to end up.
When she was watching the Spring General Conference, Alaina attempted to draw a picture of the Tabernacle choir. All of my kids were disgusted with the color choice of the women's dresses. Alaina did her best to copy it and then she said, "Just look at those crazy easter egg colors of the nabber wacko choir!" The Nabber Wacko Choir. Love it.
Last night when Alaina was doing the dishes, I picked up one pot and pointed out that it was feeling a bit greasy. She pouted and said, "Just what, exactly, are you trying to infer?!" Huh. Well, I guess I was inferring that she did a crumby job. What a sass.
One last Alaina story. The last broadway play that we took the kids to was Porgy and Bess. I had absolutely no idea what that play was about. I guess I just thought it was going to be a fun, upbeat play with a ton of awesome old spirituals and great dancing. Yeah. I guess I should really look these things up before I take my three, very impressionable kids. Who knew that it was about the Ghetto, drugs and drug addicts, murder, death and what seemed to be a rape scene. Oh yeah...and it was all sung in opera. No fun musicals. Yikes!!! It was in the middle of this rape scene where the guy was pushing the girl Bess around and she was trying to get away from him. At one point he yelled at her and pushed her to the ground. The music paused and the audience was silent. Just then, Alaina turned to me and half-whispered, half-admonished, "He needs to
really work on his
tone!" Apparently the row behind us heard her clear enough since that was followed by a few giggles from the peanut gallery. So true. He
did need to work on his tone!
During the half time, I was thinking of taking the kids home, when out of nowhere, Ethan declared, "I think this is my favorite play so far!" Okay then. Opera, it is.
I sure do love my kids! They make my life interesting!!
Oh. I know I already said that was my last Laina story...but I just thought of one more.
Last night, after her sassy comment, Alaina looks up at me and says, "Mom, I just want you to know that I appreciate everything that you do for us. All the cooking and taking care of us. I really appreciate it!"
Seriously. She's perfect.
