I love dates with my daughter.  I had a rare Saturday off, the wife had plans, and since she was taking our youngest with her, it was time for a date with our oldest.

We do this from time to time.  Usually we go for Chinese food, but lately she’s been into movies, so when I told her we were going on a date, I knew exactly what she would want to do.  “Let’s go to a movie!”  Once she’s made up her mind, there’s no changing it, so that’s what we did.

We started by going out to breakfast at one of our favorite restaurants, The Bagel Deli.   It’s a great little Jewish deli with very tasty…well…everything.  A while back it was featured on “Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives.”  Everything on the menu is great.  She ordered a bagel, eggs, and milk, and I ordered Eggs Bagel-Dict.  Here’s the description from the menu: “A toasted fresh bagel or English muffin and a blanket of pastrami, topped with two poached eggs, and covered with Hollandaise Sauce.”  Yum.

As we sat and ate our breakfast, it really struck me how our baby is growing up so fast.  She’s only 4, but she can hold a conversation about almost anything.  We talk like pals.  She’s asks me about work and I ask her about school.  She tells me about her friends and she asks tons of questions.  We play tic-tac-toe in crayon on the kids menu.  She asks me if she looks beautiful and I tell her, “Yes, because you’re so smart and kind.”  She disappears under the table and giggles.  I ask her to take a few more bites of her breakfast.  She’s a little person and she’s awesome.

I pay the bill, she thanks the server, and we walk out to our car.  She points out a yellow punch-buggy in the parking lot.  As we get to our car she says, “Our car is really dirty, daddy.  We should get a car wash!”  She loves going to the car wash.  She thinks it’s funny when the soap covers the car and we can’t see.  We pretend we’re in a submarine.

From the car wash we head to the Century Aurora 16 (yes, that theater).  I’ll admit, I thought about it.  I have been working across the street from it for the last 2 1/2 years.  I see it every day.  For the first month or so, I thought about it from time to time, but July 20, 2012 hadn’t crossed my mind in years.  Now, it’s just where I work.  It’s a normal place.  The wife and I had been to that theater before, but we haven’t been back; not because of the event, but because we moved and have a theater closer to us.  Walking in, I thought about it for a few seconds.  I can’t explain why.  My guess is that it’s like going anywhere something awful has happened.  I know it happened, I acknowledged it, and realized it’s a normal place where something horrific happened, and yet it’s normal again.  Whatever that means.  Littles has no idea, she just knows she’s going to see a movie.  God bless kids.

Anyway, my daughter and I saw “Ferdinand” at 11:00am.  It was great.  We got popcorn. Her eyes are the size of dinner plates while staring at the huge screen.  She’s robotically reaching into the popcorn bag every 20 seconds.  I don’t even think she knows she’s doing it.  I even caught her a few times with her hand in front of her mouth, popcorn squeezed between her index finger, middle finger, and thumb, and she’s just frozen.  She’s so taken by the movie she forgets she’s eating popcorn.  I chuckle at the sight.  She breaks from her trance to tell me about the characters and how “that one is mean” and “that one is so nice.”  She makes sure I know what’s happening in the movie, saying stuff like, “Oh, that’s the same place he was at when he was little” and “Oh, that’s not good.”  She cuddles against me half way through.  She tells me the seats are cozy.

The movie ends and she makes us stay past the credits.  She loves the music.  The lights come on and she snaps out of it like a 21-year-old does when the lights come on at 2am at the club.  We go outside and get in the car.  I ask her what she thought of the movie and she enthusiastically says/yells, “It was great!”  She asks if we can stop by my work (she loves going there).  We walk in and she tells my co-workers all about Ferdinand.  We go home and meet up with mom and little sister.  She tells them all about it Ferdinand.  What a great time!

I love dates with my daughter and I can’t wait until the next one.