Mommy-The Girl Playdate

The Girl was pretty jealous of my field trip with The Boy yesterday, so we took advantage of The Dad's work schedule to take a Mommy-The Girl playdate this afternoon. I had once suggested to The Girl that we get her nails painted on one of these dates and that is indelibly stamped on her brain as the thing to do with me for one-on-one out-of-the-house times.

So we went to get pedicures and a manicure at Lee Nails in Six Corners. The best part of the experience for her may not have been the bright pink polish they put on both fingers and toes, but the Dora flip-flops that I bought her for the ride home so that the polish did not smear in her shoes. Once done with the nails, we still had an hour left in our time allotment, so we walked over to Marshall's to browse around. I tried on dresses (because somehow it's easier to go shopping with one child) and we found a new bedspread for The Girl that matches the color theme in her room (lavender and green) perfectly.

Six Corners

It seems odd that in this economy, customer service would continue to be on the wane. But this morning, I discovered that poor customer service is alive and kicking back at the Sears in Six Corners. I went in to purchase a vacuum, as The Boy ruined our first one in 2004 and The Dad's chosen replacement for it, a canister vac, is not such a great choice for our tiny 1400 sf Chicago house. I've purchased basically the same vacuum in different versions since our initial vacuum purchase back in 1999. Today, I went in to get the same one in an upright, bagless version, which happened to be on sale for just under $160. None in stock and they couldn't order it. When I asked if another store would have it, the gal simply said, "I doubt it." She didn't offer to check or look online. Um, thanks. I am sorry for wasting 10 minutes of your time, lady. Good grief.

And this is probably why I buy most of my appliances either directly through GE or at the expansive Abt Electronics in Glenview.

Mama-Girl Playdate

Yesterday, we had a family outing in the morning -- to Supercuts in Six Corners for haircuts for The Boy, The Girl and The Dad. The Tot played and I read Nylon. After that exciting morning, we headed up Cicero to Whole Foods - Sauganash to kill two birds with one stone: lunch at the grill and a 1/2 gallon of milk from the dairy case.

Once home again, I headed out again to Jo-Ann Fabrics to buy lining fabrics for my latest large-scale sewing projects: making pretty bags to sell at the GIPNA Fine Arts & Crafts Fair. The Tot took a nap and The Boy wanted to stay at home, so The Girl came with me and we made it a little Mama-The Girl playdate. She helpfully picked our fabrics with me, and then we braved the hail-like white substance that was then falling from the sky in advance of the April snow shower, and hurried over to Starbucks in the same strip mall for a snack. She got kids' hot cocoa with whipped cream and a blueberry muffin. She very nicely shared her hot cocoa with me and we talked about what we were going to do at her birthday party in a month, and what we should do in Seattle this week.

Then we went home. When we arrived at our car on the other side of the parking lot, it was parked to a VW Beetle. A pink VW Beetle. TG: "See Mama! I told you there were pink cars!" This pink VW Bettle had ears and a pug nose on its front and a curly tail on its back. The license plate read "JIMS PIG." She's still talking about it.

Back to the Grind

Today was the first day back at school after our 2-week winter vacation. It was both good and bad to be back to it. The Girl was super excited to go back to preschool. The Boy was not so happy to go back to kindergarten.

The Tot and I puttered around at home and took The Dad to Urgent Care for staple removal. We also went to the Family Fruit Market for groceries (he made a beeline for the yogurt case, saying "Go! Go! Go!" [Go, Diego, Go]), and did a lot of running around between school, co-op and home. He had gotten used to having his big brother and sister around and seemed to miss them while they were at school.

I lied

I did not stay home today. But I did not take the kids sledding either. The Boy woke up in the night with some goop in his eye, and I have been wheezing pretty badly for the past month, so I took us both to Urgent Care in Six Corners. The Boy was quickly diagnosed with pink eye; it took a bit longer for the doctor to determine that I have pneumonia. Now we can rest.

Mommy Playdates

Grandma Naperville came to visit and babysit today. She got some quality time with The Baby, and I got to do a series of playdates with my own children.

First up, I went on a Mommy-The Girl playdate. We didn't have enough time to go to the Butterfly Museum, but we did engage in the 3-year-old version of the "spa day" and went for mani-pedis together at Lee Nails in Six Corners. The Girl often asks me to paint her fingernails, so I thought she'd be into getting her nails done professionally. She liked to pick out the nail polish color, and she likes the end result, but the process was rather lackluster an adventure for her. She sat in the chair by herself -- did not want to sit on my lap, held her hands out to be buffed, and patiently allowed the gal to paint her nails (and then to paint cute white-and-silver-glittery daisies on each nail), but she was not terribly interested in or excited by the prospect. She did conceded to sit on my lap for part of my pedicure.

Afterwards, we picked up The Boy and all went to lunch at McDonald's. Then I had a playdate with The Boy. Like his sister, his ideal destination (Nickel City) was too far away to reasonably get to in the span of time we had, so we had to come up with a Plan B. With the weather (cold, windy), and my health (head cold), it was hard to come up with something. So I defaulted to the cool mom standby -- a trip to the toy store, capped off with a trip to the book store. I think he had a good time; he kept picking out toys for The Baby and The Girl, although we just got a small train for him and some party favors for The Girl's upcoming birthday party.

When I got home, The Baby greeted me by not crying -- a departure from the usual. Instead, he toddled around the house, sat at his little table, and brought Grandma books to read.

Rainy Days and Mondays

Today, it rained, and The Baby had a cold. I took The Boy to school, and then stopped at "the ham store" with The Girl for groceries on the way home. Later, on the way to bring The Girl to school, I stopped off at the dry cleaners to drop my new finds off to be cleaned, and pick up last week's bags. Except for a 3-minute stop at the Crafty Beaver (who came up with that name? must have been a Wisconsinite or Minnesotan) later in the afternoon to get Closetmaid brackets, that was the extent of my industry for today. Instead, The Baby took a nap and I puttered around the house.