Bella and Mommy Time

For Bella's special day, she wanted to go fishing. Yes, you read that right, FISHING. Where it came from, I have no idea but she was so set on it! In fact, after the sweltering heat at the zoo the day before I tried my best to convince her to chose something, oh I don't know, air conditioned perhaps?!

Nope. The girl wanted to fish. So there I was, 9 months pregnant, in the fishing aisle of Walmart with a pole in one hand and a purchased fishing license in the other. Classy.

As I loaded up the blankets and food into the car I couldn't help but think about all the picnics her and I used to have before Mia was born. It was a weekly event. Every wednesday, just her and I. So much has changed since those "only child" days that I knew this day was going to be special.



We arrived at a local lake and set up our spot and began fishing. Bella is not the most patient person on the planet. So the whole sit and wait and let the fish come to you tactic was too much for her to handle. The moment she saw a fish tug on her line she started reeling it in as fast as she could. The girl refused to play hard to get with the fish which is why every time we saw a tug and reeled it in, there was nothing on our line. I tried to explain the art of fishing and that it takes strategy and timing, but she wasn't too keen on listening.



Luckily, I packed some distractors. Like bubbles and boardgames and a blank canvas to paint. As I cast out our fishing line I watched her as she painted her canvas.



I love that this painting will always serve as a reminder of our cute little date at the lake. As she painted we talked about things. Some important things and some not so important things. The point is we were talking with one another, and it felt great. As I watched her I couldn't believe how much she has grown in only 4 years. She makes me laugh every single day--I couldn't imagine a day without her in it. She is the perfect friend and her and I make a perfect team. We always have.



Upset and discouraged at not having caught a fish Bella and I decided that we would try one last time. I mean, we had been at it for about four hours already and I was starting to get sleepy staring at the waves. I cast out our final line and let it sit. To pass the time Bella tossed a couple of rocks in the water--cuz that won't distract the fish at all :)

And all of a sudden we had a tug. And another tug. We started screaming with excitement. Was it really happening? On our last attempt? Sure enough....there was a fish on our line. I began to reel it in. Bella was smiling from ear to ear.

We were so excited that we started dancing. I grabbed the camera and after snapping this picture



we proudly put the fish back into the lake.

"He has a family somewhere that's waiting for him," said Bella.

And at that I hugged her tightly and didn't want to let go.