Date Night

Last month we had our first-ever girls and boys "date nights". In the past we've gone on a few mother/son and father/daughter dates, but we'd never officially split by gender for an evening out.

I'm not actually sure what the boys did that evening - I think it involved shopping for and then playing a video game - but Hallie and I had a great time together.

First we went to Spoons for a cup of frozen yogurt. Well, actually we went to Spoons for a cup of candy with a little frozen yogurt on the side, but whatever.

Then after Spoons, we went to see Beauty and the Beast at A&M Consolidated High School. I have ridiculously high standards for high school musicals, so while I would have given it a seven out of 10, I'm pretty sure Hallie would have given it an 11.

Hallie did a decent job of sitting through the show - especially consider it lasted for more than two-and-a-half hours long and didn't start until 30 minutes before her bedtime - which I felt pretty good about. There were two notable moments during the show, the first taking place when Belle graced the stage wearing her yellow ball gown. Hallie was sitting on my lap and I had my hands around her waist, and suddenly my hands were wet. I glanced around to see Hallie's face and saw that when bee-you-tee-ful Belle had walked on stage, Hallie's jaw had literally dropped and she was drooling on my hands. The second notable moment took place shortly before intermission, when Hallie decided that she "was having problems with her underwear". She announced this - loudly - and then proceeded to try to take her underwear off, right there in the theater. I had to very literally wrestle her onto my lap and then hold her there in a vice grip (for someone so small, she's very strong) until the scene ended in order to keep those underwear on her teeny, tiny butt.

All in all we had a great time, and Hallie rewarded me for generously taking her to her first musical by throwing the most epic tantrum of her life when we arrived home. It was magical.