Lincoln Square

The Tot has thrush. One of the best cures I've found is gentian violet, which is available at Merz Apothecary. So The Tot and I headed over there this morning after we dropped The Boy and The Girl at school.

Merz Apothecary is gorgeous, old and smells great. But it's a nightmare to visit with a toddler. It's been so long since I've been there, I managed to forget this fact. Many of the bottles are displayed right at his level, so he wanted to touch them, take their caps off, etc. I got what I needed, fiddled around for too long picking out a lip balm, and got out of there.


I also forgot how much I enjoy Lincoln Square. We went across the street to Cafe Selmarie to buy a gift certificate, officially marking the last gift/person off our holiday list. As soon as we walked in, The Tot's eyes widened at the sight of the pastry case. He kept staring at the cupcakes saying, "cookie! cookie!" What is a mama to do in the face of such cuteness? Yeah, so I got him a cupcake (and me a cup of coffee) and we sat in the window for about 10 minutes, enjoying our snack and watching the world go by. We got down from his stool to stare at a little boy about his age in a stroller. I chatted briefly with his nanny -- I was impressed that she got a 20-month-old to wear mittens and a hat. She said that she refuses to leave the house if he takes them off. I don't think that will work with The Tot, who rarely leaves the house specifically because he wants to. They left to go to Starbucks, where the boy could be let out of the stroller to roam, and we left as well.

I ended up stopping next door (Enjoy) to look for some mittens for The Tot (score - stretch toddler mittens at $4/pop) in the (futile) hope of getting him to wear them without crying. I also bought a wind-up frog that made The Tot laugh ($3), and some hot-pink mitten clips ($4) to put in The Girl's Christmas stocking.

As much as I would have loved to shop the rest of Lincoln Square, I had a more pressing need for sunflower butter, so we loaded back into the car and drove down Lincoln Avenue to Trader Joe's before we needed to pick up The Girl from preschool.