Nickels

This morning, The Girl and I headed out to Lee Nails for a brief Mama-The Girl playdate. She got her fingernails polished ($5) from my lap, and I chatted with the D2 PTA mom and the CFC mom I knew.

Afterward, we went over to Sears to check out possible replacements for our slowly dying and terribly impractical side-by-side refrigerator (the icemaker is toast and has been since about 2003). The Dad and I currently debating the merits of SBS with icemaker in the door versus a French door or other bottom-freezer model. Why this is a debate, I'll never know, as we're both tall and leaning down to reach stuff in the bottom of the fridge is a PITA.

After The Tot's nap, we took a family outing to Nickel City in Northbrook, a favorite destination for both The Boy and The Dad. The Tot just likes putting nickels in the slots, whether he plays the game or not. I played a couple of rounds of DDR, but grew too tired after I moved out of beginner mode. We had collected 135 tickets by the time we were ready to leave, and I overruled the kids' desire to use it for tiny pieces of plastic junk they'd lose in the car and forget about by the time we got home; instead, we got a bag of M&Ms, which we split 3 ways among much crying. The Dad took the kids into Hobbytown USA, and I headed to Tuesday Morning, where I inadvertently started my Christmas shopping with a $15 Corolle doll for The Girl and German wooden train set for The Tot. We went to Panera in Glenview for dinner--and no one complained about that choice! A sweet afternoon all-around.