The Weather Outside Is Frightful

This morning, it was just cold and icy -- no snow -- so I headed up to Bed, Bath & Beyond in Niles to buy a slipcover for my ultimate bargain occasional chair. It was the easiest location for me to get to, but I needed help and the manager was S.L.O.W. The Tot was getting pretty bitey-grabby by the time we left and I couldn't really blame him for his restlessness.

Afterwards, because The Tot needed a snack and I still had a Barnes & Noble gift card in my purse left over from The Tot's birthday, so we headed over to the B&N in the same shopping center to use (part) of it. He enthusiastically ate half a chocolate cupcake and drank some juice, sitting up so nicely in a chair and closely observing the two other patrons in the cafe. I drank half my marshmallow latte, and then we headed over B&N Jr. to check out the books. Not surprisingly, The Tot made a beeline for the Thomas the Tank Engine section. We have many of these books already, including the complete book of Thomas stories by Rev. Audry; we ended up with Barton's Trains book instead. I let The Tot putter around the book section for about 1/2 an hour before we left to pick The Girl up from preschool.

I really need to make a book wishlist for the kids; while we were browsing the kids' section, there were several books that I was tempted to get for The Boy or The Girl, but don't have the budget for it right now.