Early Bird Salmon Supper

So one of the snacks we got at Costco with Nita a few weeks ago, was a bag of mini pancakes, packaged up in small bags of two each. You just heat them up in the microwave, and voila! So Emmie had pancakes in our room for breakfast today.

We lazed about and played for a while, do Grammy could sign on and do a little bit of work and attend the staff meeting this morning. We enjoyed a slow, quiet morning of playtime together, before having to get showered and dressed…

And then we headed out to IKEA to buy Emerson’s “big girl bed!” We waited for a Monday (rather than the weekend), hoping for smaller crowds, but maybe in the covid-era, even that wouldn’t have been bad. Because there was practically no one there today! It was literally the most empty I’ve ever seen it, which helped with my usual crowd-induced anxiety in that place.

Sadly, the IKEA family restaurant was closed, because I really wanted some meatballs! And so did Emerson! We tried to go to a nearby Chick-fil-A instead, but their dining room wasn’t open, and I was hangry and annoyed by then, and didn’t want to take it all the way back to the RMH to eat it, 20 minutes away.

So we saw a noodle place across the way, and blindly chose it instead (mainly because they did have some limited indoor seating), and it actually turned out to be delicious! Mama and I both got the buffalo chicken mac, and Jeff got orange chicken lo mein noodles. We ordered Emmie just a side of plain Mac & cheese, but she ended up eating three of the potsticker appetizer Grammy got instead!

Emmie was still hungry when we got back to the “who-tell” so she asked to eat some more lunch at the “picnic table” where we’ve been eating dinner every night. (They’re are no tables in the dining room and we’re supposed to take our food back to our rooms, but we found these two tables nearby in a little hallway area, and have enjoyed eating there instead.)

Emmie napped in her crib today, and did great. (Oh, and she slept great in her crib last night, from about 8:45pm – 6:30ish this morning, then I pulled her in my bed for cuddles until 7am, so that went well!) She didn’t want to be in the room by herself (with Jeff and I in the “sitting room” in the front of the room), so Jeff crawled in the bed next to her crib, and they both napped soundly for about two hours. They woke up to an announcement on the intercom system at 4:40pm that dinner was ready.

So around 5pm, we made our way down to collect our meals for an extremely early bird supper. But look at how great it was tonight! After three nights of take-out food, we were very glad to see the resident chef was back, with this super delicious salmon, rice and veggies. We were very impressed. Emmie only ate the rice, bit we didn’t mind splitting her fish & veggies amongst ourselves to share 😉

We had lots of evening playtime after dinner, so we went around to all the little areas we could find in the RMH. The problem is, most of the fun play stuff can’t be used right now because of covid, so there are limited options. There is however a little corner full of house-hold appliances, but none of the little toys that go with it. One of the worker ladies saw her playing and was nice enough to grab her a couple sets of brand new toys, that she can take to & from the kitchen and our room every day, and a new baby, because she said you can’t have a tea party by yourself!

While out here on the patio, she was like, “Why we didn’t bring my gloves for gardening?” I was like, “Well, I didn’t know we were gonna need to do gardening here!” But she dug in and grabbed some dead leaves and weeds anyways, and made a small mess on the patio, but the ladies didn’t seem to mind too much 😉

For her daily present, she specifically told me she wanted to open these polka dot ones from William and Andrew. (Her twin besties at school.) And she loved the Bible story lift-the-flap book and robe they got her!

We read all the stories for her bedtime book, and after this first one about Adam & Eve, she looked up at me and said, “And they were supposed to take care of the garden!”

She’s sleeping in her crib again tonight, but making daddy lay in the bed next to her crib until she falls asleep. And even then she told him she didn’t want him to leave, even if it was just to come up to the front half of our tiny suite/room 😆 So once I finish this blog, I’m gonna grab my Kindle and read. I only have about 15 minutes left in this book (the second in a series of 3½ books so far, with a few more scheduled in the upcoming years), and it’s been really super good so far. I’ve already downloaded book #3 and #3.1 from the library onto my Kindle, so I’m set for a while! Excited to finish the one really quick, and go ahead and start on the next one.