little g

I have to take a  moment to sing the praises of my beautiful daughter. Of course I am a little bias. A few of my close friends have told me how well mannered and polite she is, but sometimes as parents we those compliments are just pleasantries. I think it is starting to sink in and I believe my friends are being genuine. Why, yesterday we had a gentleman in our home doing an energy audit and he came to me in the middle of it to say "I have to tell you, not only is your daughter beautiful and well mannered, but she actually listens and obeys you. I have been in hundreds of homes and you don't see that very often..." we had quite a discussion. He was a very kind and gentle man who loves his job  but I can appreciate the situations he was describing and imagine how difficult that must be for him to do his job sometimes. I told him that we are so blessed to have little g, and I thanked him for his kind words.

Everyday little g comes home from school and makes a  snack for herself and for anyone else in the house (typically Grant's assistant is here, myself, and sometimes clients too). Today I suggested she might want to try to bake something. Afterall ,she is 10 now and when I was 10 my sister (who was 11) and I had to prepare a full dinner (with tea and dessert) after school before Dad and Mom came home from work.
I had brought home a bag of apples at lunch today, so little g decided she would make an apple crumble (apple crisp depending what part of the country you live). I was all for it. I told her it was my favorite dessert to make when I was her age.
 

I stayed curled up in the living room sofa working away on my laptop and could hear her in the kitchen humming away while she peeled the apples, preheated the oven, and made the crumble.  While it was baking, little g used the time to clean up her mess. You heard me correctly, the 10 yr old cleaned up her cooking mess without being told. It smelled so good. The apples, the cinnamon, the brown sugar all melding together. Mmmmm. Of course little g was dying to bite into it as soon as it came out of the oven, but I convinced her to save it for after dinner. She proudly served Daddy and I the dessert with a dollop of whipped cream on top.  It was perfect.

I love my little girl to the moon and back. She is growing up so fast, so responsible, so mature for her age.  But every now and then she will do something that will keep her my little girl a little longer, like bring all her dolls into the tub or wrestle with her dad or make goofy faces, or dress up the dog. She truly is a gift from God and I am so honored and blessed to be her mom.