Alpaca My Bags

Happy Friday! Happy toddler-girl! New outfit, and Emmie chose her own shoes today! (Her onesie says, “Explore more? Alpaca my bags!” When I sent these photos to the family this morning, Grammy responded, “Alpaca my bags too & go with her!”

Looking lovingly at her double chocolate chip muffin…

And very much enjoying it, as evidenced by the chocolate all over her chin!

And little baby Kensley was wearing the same kind of animal on her onesie today too! It’s probably a llama, not an alpaca, but they’re very similar. And she’s adorable too!

I did it, you guys! I finished my audio book right as I got to work today. I actually had about a day to spare, so I ended up returning it early. This book has received lots of high praise over the years (it’s a New York Times bestseller, and has been turned into a tv series on Starz), but it just fell a little bit short of all that hype for me. I was entertained, and invested, and interested in figuring out the murder mystery, but I don’t know, I just wasn’t blown away by it in the end. There are actually six book sin the entire series (following a different main detective of the Dublin Murder Squad in each one), but I’m not sure if I want to keep reading… I may though, eventually, but who knows…

I met my Mama for a little mother-daughter lunch at Zoe’s today. (Poor lady is still sick & got the bad cough now, so pray for her speedy recovery!) We had delicious food (my usual – chicken kebabs with rice & Greek salad) and good conversation, and it was so nice! It had been too long since the last time we got together just the two of us (we couldn’t even remember when the last time was!), and I really, really enjoyed it today.

I also started on my next audio book from the library, “Me” by Elton John. It’s his “tell-all autobiography,” read by actor Taron Egarton, who also plays him in the new movie about his life, Rocketman. I grew up listening to Elton John with my Mama (alongside Vince Gill, Trisha Yearwood and The Little River Band), so it seemed fitting that I was eating lunch with her right as I was starting this new audio book.

Also fitting for today, was this NYT article I just happened to read about therapy llamas & alpacas, since Emmie and Kensley wore alpaca & llama onesies today!

Emerson had a good day at school, and got to play with Play-Doh, which is one of her favorite things currently, so I know she was happy about that.

After work, I picked up Emerson from daycare and she helped carry her bag to the car. (She loves doing this, I don’t force it on her 🤣)

And then we headed over to Jeff’s parents’ house to have dinner with them. They are going out of town this coming week, so we wanted to squeeze in a meal with them before then. We ordered food from BJ’s Brewhouse, and they actually delivered it to the house! (Nita is having some knee issues, so she wasn’t up to cooking or going out, and that was perfectly fine with us, but pray for her knee to get better!)

First she helped Nana put some Christmas decor window clings on the back door…

And played peek-a-boo with PopPop…

And this baked ziti was super yummy! But it was huge and I couldn’t finish it all.

Emmie didn’t eat much sitting in her chair with her own plate, but then she wanted to hold Nana, and then she wanted to eat a ton and got Nana to feed her all the noodles.

And even though we were all stuffed, after playing for a while, we found some room for dessert…

Coconut cream pie and decaf coffee (two nights in a row! such a treat!), with coconut almond joy creamer. Sooo yummy!

Once we got home, to complete the theme of the day, I put on my alpaca night gown, which Emmie just loved! She actually thinks the little packs on his back are cookies, so she was like, “two cookies, Mommy!”

After prayers and hugs and kisses and milk, she snuggled in on my chest while I sang our usual lullabies. She was easy to get down after that, and was super sweet.

I’m feeling super tired tonight, so I don’t I’ll stay up too late after I hit publish. We don’t have too much planned for tomorrow, so I’m looking forward to a mostly-chill day with my little family!