I heart Fridays

TGIF. Many people look forward to Fridays as the end of a work week and the beginning of a weekend. But for me, it’s also my wonderful day with my daughter.

I’ve mentioned this before, so I hope you forgive me for bringing it up again. You see, it was a rather busy week filled with many demands of work – so a day spent away from computers with my favourite little girl was extra appreciated.

We dropped V off at the office this morning then headed to a cafe. Going for “coffee and muffin” is one of M’s and my favourite things to do. She loves looking around at other cafe patrons and staring out the big windows at people and cars going by outside. And as her vocabulary grows, we are starting to have little conversations about what she sees - or we just make silly faces at each other while I sip my coffee and she snacks on a muffin.

After the cafe, we headed over the seniors’ residence where M is received with much joy. She knows many of the seniors by name now and increasingly talks about them at home and engages with them during our visits – sharing her toys, doing puzzles or tossing around a big balloon. When we leave, she says good-bye to them by name.

Afterward, instead of coming home for lunch, I took M to my favourite vegetarian buffet-style restaurant where we both had a delicious lunch and she again got to absorb her surroundings. Many people have remarked to me how observant she is, and certainly she generally prefers to hang back and take things in. It’s fun to watch her sizing things up and then have her describe them to me. Sometimes the smallest thing will become a repeated subject of ‘conversation’ for the rest of the day.

In the afternoon, we were out again, this time to one her favourite places: the Agriculture Museum. We went around the farm, saying hello to horses, cows, rabbits, sheep and goats. There were pygmy goats, young lambs and a new calf too.

I feel so lucky to have these days like today – peaceful, gentle, laughter-filled and life-affirming.