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I really am enjoying my "Thursday Sabbaths." Today, I got up, played with Chloe, took a 2-hour nap, dropped B's freshly-ironed clothes off at his work, went to Target for some "fun" shopping, came home, played with Chloe, took a 45-minute nap, played with Chloe, cleaned up my kitchen (which was the only productive thing I did today), made myself French Toast for supper, and cuddled on the couch with my hubby.
Do you know, I really don't think I have had regular days like this since living in Cleveland?
And here it is, the busiest schedule I have ever had, and somehow the Lord has given me AT LEAST one day like this each week. How amazing!
Taking CJ shopping is one of my favorite things to do. It's like playing with a baby doll.
I get her directly up from her nap, dress her in the cutest outfit she has (that's clean), throw her in the car with a banana and a string cheese and off we go...
Let me tell you, this girl LOVES to shop! She squeels when I'm getting her out of the car seat and into the buggy (that's a shopping cart for all you Northerners out there). She feels all the clothes as we're passing them, and grabs anything she likes. Once she has it firmly in hand (and off the hanger) she will hand it to me like, "Here mom, we need to get this!" It's so fun!
Another anomoly that has happened recently is her infatuation with a certain baby doll.
Now, let me explain, this girl - at 16 months old - has more baby dolls than some have in a lifetime. She has bald ones and hair-full ones, babies that blink their eyes, and babies that sing lullabyes. I'm telling you, this girl has SO MANY babies.
But there is one in particular that she seems to cling to. The story behind this baby is thus:
While doing one of those massive grocery shopping trips to WallyWorld, CJ became wrestless in the lightbulb aisle. She was over her "shopping excitement" and our long trip was encroaching upon her afternoon naptime. So in desperation to keep her happy a few more minutes, I went in search of any toy I could find to keep her occupied. I held up bright-colored blocks and dancing elmos, books with sound effects and stuffed animals that growled, purred, barked, and roared. As she became more and more aggitated, I became more and more panicked. Eventually, I was pulling every toy off the shelf and waving it in her face to get her to calm down. One by one, she pushed them away. (Now, let me insert here that I am not normally the mom who "bribes" her child to "please be quiet honey." Normally, if I see she is getting to this point, I simply leave the store and try it again another time. Reasoning with her is another option, but this only seems to work BEFORE we have passed the golden nap-time hour. In this case, my buggy was OVERFLOWING with groceries, fabric, school supplies, birthday presents, cleaning solutions... the list goes on. There was NO WAY I was leaving that buggy there!) So in my final act of desperation before bursting into tears myself... I reached into the $1 bin at the end of the aisle and pulled out the first thing that fell within my grasp.
It was a little cloth babydoll with stitched-on facial features, a pink felt hat and matching felt dress. It has no fingers or toes - just sock-like knobs where the hands and feet should be.
This poor little creature really was the saddest looking baby doll I had ever seen.
And there, in the middle of the bustling toy section of WallyWorld, where once terrible tantrums made other shoppers turn there buggies in terror - a once-again happy baby squeeled with delight as she grabbed the pitiful excuse for a doll and hugged it.
We spent the rest of the shopping trip pretending to feed the doll bananas through her stringy mouth, put bandaids on her sock arms, and sing "Twinkle, Twinkle" into her non-existent ears.
This, my dear readers, is the baby doll that now has captured CJ's 16-month-old heart.
She woke up this morning crying - not "mommy or daddy" as she normally does - but crying "baaaaaaaaaby." Alas, the doll had fallen under the bed.
So as I put her in her carseat today, she sat with a banana in one hand and string cheese in the other and went down her verbal checklist:
CJ - "'Nana"
Me - "Yes, you have your banana."
CJ - "EEESe"
Me - "Yes, you have your cheese."
CJ - "Banky"
Me - "Mommy has your blanket."
CJ - "Baaaaaaaby"
Me - "Of course, mommy has your baby."
So while all the beautiful baby dolls sit on the shelf collecting dust, "baaaaby" tags along with us on all our adventures.
For whatever reason, CJ loves this little raggedy baby doll. And after saving me in WallyWorld that day, I think she deserves some of my love too.
So I guess that's it for today. I really should head to bed.
Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!