VBS Week

This week Alaina attended VBS at the church of a friend of ours. They have a separate VBS for young kids, and a parent or guardian stays with the kids the whole time. The majority of the time is spent watching and interacting with a live performance featuring tons of characters and lots of songs. This is right up Alaina's alley -- she loves watching live performances and getting invested in the characters. Of course, her favorites are always the female ones, and this one had several: a couple princesses, maidens, a queen, etc. Here's Alaina with a princess, maiden, and queen:


Here she is with another princess:

Yesterday we were watching and the actors who were done joined the audience. I noticed that a character she liked was in front of us. The character heard me and turned around to say hello. Alaina whispered in my ear, "Mommy, is it OK if I go and sit by her?" There were little girls clustered all around her, but she made room for Alaina anyway and of course Alaina proceeded to talk her ear off during the rest of the performance. ;-) It was very sweet. Here's Alaina standing next to her during a musical number (the kids usually stand up and dance during those):

I thought it would be fun to do something special today after VBS but I didn't want to spend money. I remembered that I had a Starbucks gift card, so we each got a drink and I also got Alaina a cake pop that looked absolutely perfect for her tastes:

After being photographed several times today, Alaina felt like ending the session her favorite silly face.

One more little story before I end. Sometimes I notice that watching Alaina is like seeing some of the aspects that lie inside most women but get shoved down. She is so relentlessly feminine and comes by it naturally. Anyway, I already mentioned how she loved all the female characters. Earlier this week I noticed that the "queen" was near us and pointed her out to Alaina. She was engaged in a conversation with a family she knew. Alaina went near to hopefully get her attention at some point. While she waited, it was so interesting to watch her smile and look up and then look down at her outfit and make all sorts of expressions that made it obvious that she really wanted the queen to look at her, notice her, and comment on how pretty she looked or her dress or hair. It was written all over her face and body language. It made me wonder if many women have that desire but we mask it or push it down. (Eventually the queen did notice her and say hello.)