Daddy Daughter Date

McKlayne is a great date. If you're ever around McKlayne it wouldn't take much of your imagination to understand this. The girl is never at loss for words. The questions are endless ... which is great for a daddy who is a bit below average on the conversational spectrum. But I did have plenty of questions for my girl on our overdue date. And I did have to wait occasionally to fit in those questions.

We had dinner with the family and then set out for the mall. I wanted to allow for some major talking time with my girl as we walked around. I also love McKlayne's imagination. I think it's one of her greatest assets and I'm not sure that I've seen anyone use theirs as much as she does. I wanted to see it take off as we wandered around. 

The mall didn't disappoint. The somewhat unsightly construction left us with my many X's (designating broken tiles) on the floor that marked all of the mall's buried treasure. We stopped at kiosks and stores and tried on glasses, masks and more. We squeezed into a kids' ride and went on a rollercoaster together. I'm telling you — the girl is F-U-N. 

Our first scheduled stop was the pet store. It's really the puppy store as that's all that they sell. But, it's where we take our kids to get their pet-fix as we are a "No Pet Zone." And McKlayne — the little mommy and animal lover — lights up when you mention going. She could spend hours there holding those creatures. I let her stay as long as I can stand the smell and the gushing pet lovers' "goo goo" talk and then give her an additional 10 minutes. 

McKlayne holding "Adelae"

She told me what she'd name the pup and then what Mommy, Daddy and Asher might name it. And when I asked, she quickly informed me that Oliver couldn't name pets yet — like it was a crazy question. I didn't ask about L. She told me about what she'd do, where they'd go and the tricks that she'd teach it. And then we switched out dogs and repeated. 

We walked back through the mall to pick up a cookie for Asher both lamenting the removal of the giant playplace in the food court. We split a peanut butter cookie (one of her favorites) and were off to Spoons. 

A few stops at the mall

If you ask McKlayne where she wants to go on a date, you may get a few different places or ideas, but "Spoons" is always the first one. We tried a few flavors with our stack of sample cups and then got our usuals. McKlayne mixed her gummy bears, yellow mystery gusher balls, chocoate chips and sprinkles into her strawberry-cheesecake swirl yogurt. Yumm, right? We had a lot more to talk about and then she dared me to take a bite of her concoction. Well ... she sweetly and generously asked me if I wanted to try hers. But, it felt like a dare. Either way I ate that stuff ... and lied to her face and said it was delicious. 

I scooted around next to her in order to hold out the camera and snap a pic of our date. After we got a good one that included both of our heads, two smiles and our yogurts in the same shot, I decided to stay close and do some "same side sitting." She politely asked me to move back across the table. I proceeded to let her know how Mommy and I would sit close on our dates while we talked. She nodded and pointed to the other side of the table. I chuckled and compliantly scooted my chair back around. McKlayne, may you always be so firm and keep all of your future dates honest.

We love Spoons!

And that was it. McKlayne was such a treat. The way I laughed with her, gushed over her and just stared from time-to-time at her beauty reminded me of other dates with a girl that actually shares a resemblance (and a lot of personality) with my Klayney. So we headed back home, delivered our cookie and wondered what the phrase "awkward silence" even meant. 

Here's to many more dates with you McKlayne. Love, Daddy.