Girl Time

Toby's been in school for 4 months now, and usually while he's in school Lucy and do grocery shopping or come home and have nap time. I had these visions of us doing fun girly things while Toby was in school, but that has just not happened.

Until today.

We had a few Christmas returns to make, and as luck would have it, we'd have to go to the mall. And Toby hates the mall. The thought of going to the mall with that boy...well, I'd rather pluck my eyebrows. Not the most horrible thing in the world, but not pleasant at the same time. So I thought I might just have enough time to make it to the mall and back while he was in school today.

We dropped him off at 12:30 and left straight for the mall. Lucy had duplicates on one toy, so we returned that and she had a ball picking out a replacement. She wanted everything :) until she saw the talking Dora Backpack, and the decision was made.

As luck would have it, I also had a $5 coupon for Build a Bear from Lucy's birthday, good on any purchase. It was so quiet in there - all the kids are back in school - and we had the place to ourselves. I've been in there on the weekends and this was far from the same experience! I showed her the clothes and said she could pick an outfit for her monkey, or she could adopt a new toy - she picked an adorable brown teddy bear and loved stuffing him.

The mall was almost empty and while we didn't have time to wander, it was fun to walk through with her. She's very chatty these days and we had a good time. I had doubles on a book, so we had just enough time to run to the bookstore across the street and she was happy to talk to me while I shopped for books - her brother isn't nearly so patient. The same boy who can happily play with legos for hours canNOT stand quietly for 10 minutes while I shop. Lucy, on the other hand, was as happy as could be.

I found a book (full of patterns for handweaving, which by the way, I have come by 2 looms lately), we checked out, and ran into Starbucks for a capp for me and a cookie for her. We didn't have time to sit there and eat, but it was such a fun girl date.

We made it back to school with 5 minutes to spare and the kids were able to play on the indoor playground for a half hour before we headed home. Both kids are incredibly happy right now...Lucy that she got to have some one on one time with Mom, and Toby that he didn't have to go to the dreaded store :)

By the way, we had a lovely holiday. It's been hard to get back into the swing of things, especially since I let the whole house slide the whole week Curtis was home (he took the week off work). I'm making up for it now, but it is nice to have routine again. And I KNOW the dog is happy to see us back on our regular schedule (he hates it when he doesn't know what is going on).

I think the best thing right now is that we have nothing on the calendar this month or next. I'm sure that will change, but for the time being, it's nice to have a break. Besides, with the shelves done being built downstairs, it's time for us to organize the basement, and I'd like Curtis to have time to build my laundry room before Spring.