The Mall

Chicago Mama's cupboard was bare, so I took The Girl and The Tot out for lunch today. I had suggested Panera, as it's right across the street from the Market Square Pottery Barn Kids. But The Girl declared that she did not like that PBK and wanted to go to the one at Old Orchard Mall instead.

In her younger days, before we had to worry about such silly things as school pick-up times and better budgeting, we spent a lot of time at the mall (our favorite, as a group, is probably Northbrook Court, with its giant treehouse in the center court). These days, although every retailer and its cousin is trying to lure us in with sales, rewards programs, and other incentives, we don't go very often. It probably also helps that the screenprint I saw yesterday at the T-Shirt Deli ("I take the fun out of shopping") aptly describes both The Boy and The Tot, thereby rendering shopping an activity best enjoyed without the company of children, and therefore not enjoyed very often by me.

And yet: we went. And despite the rain, it was (mostly) fun. At least The Girl keeps talking about how much fun she had. We went to the infinitely more preferable (than Panera) Nordstrom Cafe for lunch: Lime-Cilantro Chicken Salad ($9) for me, Simple Turkey Sandwich ($5) for The Girl, and The Tot shared with us both. On the way in, we ran into Carrie from Disney II, a mom of a child in The Boy's class, who seems to run in the same social/activities circuit as I do, and her little boy. After lunch, we headed to PBK to spend my PBK card holder rewards coupon. It was hard to come up with something I wanted to buy -- we checked out the stuff at Pottery Barn and Williams-Sonoma next door before settling on a pink Farmhouse Chair to complete our set; it's the only chair that we didn't buy as a floor model. We took a quick cruise through Gap Kids, where the salesgirl made me feel bad that my 2-year-old wanted to throw every one of the bucket of small playground balls set at perfect toddler height across the store. We stopped at the E-bar at Nordstrom on the way home for a latte (me) and snack (The Girl, The Tot) and skedaddled.

Old Orchard

I headed up to Old Orchard this morning for a mom-only appointment. As a favor to me (and another perk of working from home), The Dad stayed home with the kids. Then, because he had a Very Important Conference Call and asked me to take the kids out of the house during it, I turned around half an hour after returning and went back up to Old Orchard with The Boy, The Girl, and The Tot.

We hit Nordstrom for back-to-school shoes from its Anniversary sale, and then headed over to the cafe for "the usual." We meandered to the center play area so the kids could climb on the dragon. Unfortunately, it was 90+ degrees outside and the dragon was in direct sun. I tried to convince the kids to veer off into Pottery Barn Kids to play, but they were not interested.

So we got our photos taken at The Picture People instead. I made a quick dash through Janie & Jack for coordinating outfits from their sales rack. The Tot has a photo deficit. He's had two formal photo sessions since birth. As The Dad says, he's the neglected 3rd child. Today's photo session remedied that. I had not been to the PP since before The Girl was born; they've changed over to an all-digital format that reduces the wait time for photos. While we waited, we went to Starbucks for a snack (mama needs her occasional latte!) and then wandered around Restoration Hardware, where the kids annoyed the (patient, older) clerks and amused their patrons by asking a million and one questions.

Then it was time to go home. Traffic on the Edens was bad, as usual.

Mama-Tot Playdate

Whenever I spend one-on-one time with The Girl, she calls it a Mama-Girl Playdate. Today, I had a Mama-Tot Playdate. It was nice. It wasn't fantastically exciting, but when you are 14-months-old, even mundane errands can be fun.

I took him to Nordstrom to buy (him) new shoes. The traffic on the Edens wasn't too bad, but I was starving when we got there, so we stopped into the cafe to have lunch first. He had had lunch at home with The Dad previously, but he happily ate some of my salad while sitting on my lap. I made the mistake of sitting outside, so there was a huge lag between ordering and getting my food. I finally asked the server when he brought my check before my salad. There were four chatty ladies having lunch next to us, and The Tot enjoyed flirting with them while we waited.

After lunch, we went next door to the kids' shoe department to get a matching (to The Boy) pair of green Keens for him. I also ordered a pair of baby Cons for him, since they didn't have his size in the color I wanted in-stock in the store. He also got a balloon, which I tucked into the back of his shorts so we wouldn't lose it.

I ran down to Gap to return some stuff for The Dad. The Tot rearranged the lotions bottles while I made my return. He was only 10 feet away from me, but I could see where he was going from the yellow balloon attached to his pants. We made our way back through the mall to Nordstrom. I got a snack for The Tot -- chocolate-covered graham crackers -- and an iced tea for me. He wanted to walk himself and had a mind of his own on the best way to go. He was so cute walking determinedly through Nordstrom with a chocolate-graham in hand and a balloon sticking up. When I held his hand to re-direct him, he'd stop and squat down -- his way of telling me that he wanted to do it himself.

Traffic on the Edens looked bad, so I took Route 50 home. I think it took about as much time as the Edens would have.