My first official girl moment, I believe (long)

It happened today.

As I've said before, I work with a neighbor/family friend. Her entire family is practically an extension of my own, epecially her daughter who is close to my age who I've known since we were really little. This friend who we'll just call "Julie", has an older adopted brother who we'll call "Daniel". Daniel and his girlfriend have a 4 year old daughter who I've been getting to know (and have been finding lovelier and lovelier). We'll call her N. Daniel lives out on his own with his girlfriend and N and would only occasionally visit Julie's house giving me only rare occasions to see and befriend N. During most of this time she was terrified of me, mainly the 12 inch mohawk I had at the time. She got over the fear quickly and would regularly come from Julie's house with her to see my parents. This led to her warming up to me and even growing a little affection.

Now that the back story is out of the way.

Turns out, Daniel and his girlfriend moved into a house right up the street from me so they could be closer to everyone in Julie's household (we all work in roughly the same field). This means that N is now permenantly closer to me. Julie came to me today and asked if I wanted to go visit and check out the new house. I saw this as an oportunity to see N as well in an attempt to grow our friendship. Turns out, I didn't even have to try :)

Julie and I walk to the front door and there was N in the front window with a look of excitement. She yelled our names to her dad who opened to door for us. The moment I walked in, N climbed to the top of the couch, yelled my name with affection and jumped at me. It startled me, but I caught her. Hah. She's never shown that much affection towards me in the past. As I held her she asked "Are you here to see the new house?" I told her that I was and that I was happy for her and her mom and dad. I set her down on the couch and her dad started showing me the works of the new place even though it's the basic structure of my own. Julie chimes in "N, show him your room." N hops off the couch and tells me "C'mon." as she hurries down the hallway (one story house). I followed her to her room and we went in. She immidiately left without a word, though so I followed her again back out to the kitchen.

Julie grabbed N by the hands and she began leaning backward and laughing. Julie laughed and lowered her to the kitchen floor and she layed smiling. She then looked over to me (the only one left in the kitchen) and said "Up up!" and reached for me. I took her hands. Something else I've nevre done before. I lifted her to her feet, but I couldn't let go. She looked up at me beaming with a smile and started trying to run around me in a circle. I spun with her and soon enough I was spinning her up off the ground. After a few minutes of that (and her dad telling her that the house was too small for stuff like that indoors) she disappeared off into the living room.

Daniel was setting up to cook for dinner and I stood around and conversed with him and Julie for a little while. N was on the couch watching TV, but she got up and came over and looked up at me with her adorable big eyes and asked me to sit with her and watch TV. I couldn't refuse. I sat with her and she asked me lots of questions about nearly everything that was on TV (you know how curious little girls are). Two jackets I had layered on (it was freezing out) were draped over the couch where we were sitting. She pulled the lighter one off of the back of the couch and onto her lap. "Zis yours?" she asked to which I told her it was as she only noticed my leather jacket when I arrived. "And this one, too?" she said grabbing at my leather one. "Yep." I told her. "How many are you wearing?" she asked. I told her just those two, but she said "You have three." She tugged on my thin and hanging black sweater. "Why do you have this on?" she asked me. "Because it's really cold today." I told her back. "Take this off." She started an attempt to lift my sweater over my head. A quick diciplinary call from her father ended this, but I was still left blushing.

We all ate dinner and conversed some more and afterward I was again gently led by the shirt sleeve (or sweater in this case) over to the couch for more cartoons. She was being restless and would constantly move around. Once she softly put her hand on my knee without breaking attention from what she was looking at. It was almost as if it were second nature. The feeling was indescribable.

As Julie and I prepaired to leave, N once again climbed the couch and jumped into my arms (a future frequent activity, I hope). I held her and spun her in circles as she directed me which way to go. I put her down and she held her hands up so I took them into mine. Julie says "N, we gotta go now." to which N shook back and forth holding my hands with prolonged "no"s. "I have to go home now, N." I told her. "I want you to stay." she said again looking with those big eyes into mine. I didn't want go, but I had to. I leaned down and ran my hand back along the top of her head and her gorgeously soft hair and said "Now that you live here, we can come up any time. We'll be back." She gave me a darling look and I asked for a hug. She jumped at me again and hugged me before Julie and I left.

I thought about the events all night. Over and over. My first real girl moment.