Precious

Carly was absolutely precious tonight! She and I went to a Halloween party, and this little lion melted my heart. She was very cute walking around looking and playing some of the different games set up, trying to convince someone that she needed something off of the food table (in particular a mini-cupcake), and running around with the big kids. But what really melted my heart was when she wanted to "check-in" with me. She would roam around with the kids, then start going up to every female that had some similar attribute to me, brown hair, jeans on, etc. She would look them square in the face or request to be picked up once it became dark and she couldn't see the faces clearly. She would get a hug or be picked up by this other woman, play with them a few moments, and then request to proceed on her merry little way. This would continue until she found me. Once finding me, she would "run" over to me, give me a BIG hug, then want down to go play with the kids some more. While I thought this was really cute, the precious portion came when she got tired. She found herself closer to a group of men and began doing the same game she had done earlier with the women. However, this time she wasn't looking for me, she was looking for Dave. She had forgotten (probably in her tiredness) that he had not gone to the party with us. (I'm sure she didn't understand that he was in Charleston visiting his grandparents, but at the beginning of the party she did seem to understand that he wasn't there.) I could see the frustration rising in her as she couldn't find him, and she ran just a little bit faster towards me than she had earlier in the evening once I was able to make eye contact with her. I felt really bad for her that it would be another day before she would see her dad, but I did find it absolutely precious that even though she hadn't seen him in over 24 hours she was tired and wanted to be held by him. Thankfully, I would do and tears didn't erupt - but it was apparent, her first choice tonight wasn't me but her daddy!