Noelle.

THIRTEEN.

Noelle.

I'd made it back home in time for my shoot that I had booked. Lani was complaining about being hungry even though before we made it I'd stopped and gotten her chick-fil-a. I rarely like bringing her with me when I have shoots cause she loves being under me 24/7 when I'm in her vicinity, and as much as I loved that, and loved that I was fortunate enough to be able to bring her to work with me, I couldn't have her on my hip while photographing my clients.

If the clients have children, she'd play with them while their parents did their pictures and if not, she watched, or played on her IPad. She was obsessed with my assistant Erica, always wanting to sit under her desk, so sometimes she'd be with her. I loved that she felt comfortable around her, cause it normally takes her a while to warm up to people, or at least it did when she was little. She was really growing up, I could cry just thinking about it.

"Mommy I want ice cream" she spoke from the backseat of my car, "Leilani, if you're hungry, you're going to eat food. Ice cream is a snack, not a food" I Spoke, stopping at a red light and looking at her little face in my rear view mirror. "I'm not hungry. I want a snack" she replied, I could sense the lie in her voice and see it on her face. "I'll stop and get ice cream but you're not getting it until we get home and you eat real food" I replied sternly, setting that boundary. She'd forgotten who I was for a minute, I had to take a small breather and fix my tone before I spoke to her cause she doesn't do well with raised voices.

"Can I have strawberry please" she beamed, "Yes, my love, you can have strawberry. What do you want to eat when we get home?" I asked, keeping my eyes on the road, going to a Dairy Queen not too far from home. "Ummm... Ice cream" she spoke. "No ma'am" I replied quickly, a small laugh escaping my lips as she giggled, realizing that she couldn't trick me. I know I probably shouldn't have laughed, but she can be so funny to me sometimes. She really tried to sneak that in, negative.

"Can I have a corndog?" She asked. When I promised her something sweet after dinner, she always wanted a corn dog. Just one, cause the faster she eats dinner, the faster she can have her snack. I hate and love the fact that she's so smart sometimes. I've learned to pick my battles as a parent, cause I try to make sure she has a vegetable with every meal, but I was willing to let her have it tonight. Mama is tired and ready to finally get her laid down and to lay myself down in my own bed.

"Anything you want" I replied, pulling into Dairy Queen. I got our orders in and pulled through the line, singing the soundtrack to trolls two with my child happily. After getting the goods, we pulled off before Lani's soft voice cut through the music, "Can I hold my ice cream?" She asked, a smile on her face. I turned around to look at her, "Yes, you can. But if you open it, you won't get it when we get home" I spoke, holding eye contact with her so that she knew I was serious. She held my gaze, nodding her head sweetly as I handed her the mini blizzard. We continued to sing as we drove home happily.

When making it home, I put our ice cream into the freezer and turned on the airfryer, letting it preheat, "Go ahead and pick you out some pajamas, you have school in the morning" I bent down in front of my daughter, pressing a kiss to her head as she rubbed her eye sleepily and wrapped me in a small short hug as I embraced her little body back. I checked my phone for the first time in hours as she walked away to her room, and saw a message from Logan, we'd texted during our whole flight, giggling and chuckling from our seats at our messages like middle schoolers. We had a flirty exchange when we landed and got off the plane, he made sure he was standing behind me so he could talk to me when getting off the plane. He even managed to get Leilani to laugh at him, which was another thing that was rare for her when meeting new people.

Logan:
Why don't you show me your favorite places in San Francisco tomorrow? We can go early, maybe go to a coffee shop.

I found myself smiling at the message, who was this white man and why was I smiling at my phone like a 15 year old? I quickly stopped myself from smiling, setting my phone down when the airfryer beeped. Right on time. I put Leilani's mini corndogs in and set a timer for 10 minutes as she emerged from the room. "Mommy I wanna wear the soft pink ones. I picked out clothes for school too" she beamed as I smiled back down at her, "You're such a big girl, I can't believe you're growing up on me" I gushed, kneeling in front of her on the kitchen floor.