Escalators & Excavators

Is 6:45 considered early or not? I don’t actually know anymore. Either way, we were up at 6:45am. We snuggled on the couch staying warm, and Emerson ate a Publix chocolate chip muffin. We sat in the cozy chair in the dining room, talking about why the grass was white. And little miss just had to go out and check it out!

We only stayed outside for a few minutes, but it was like 33 degrees, so we quickly went back inside to warm up. And wow doesn’t she just look like the cutest little hipster girl with that sideways beanie? She put that on herself!

Jeff had actually left pretty early to head out to the church for a men’s breakfast & work day, so Emerson and I went out for breakfast & errands on our own. I had asked her before we left home, if she wanted a biscuit and hash brown from McDonald’s, and then she kept talking about going to Old McDonald’s.

Oh yeah, and she’s still wearing her jammies, because she didn’t want to change! She said, “No mommy, I wear my jammies, I’ll be cute!” And if you’re gonna wear jammies out & about, what better places than Old McDonald’s, Walmart, and two thrift stores?! 🙂

We grabbed a few things from inside Walmart – paint for an upcoming surprise project, a $5 dress, $2 hair clips, and her first pack of panties! She got to choose between puppies or princesses, and she chose puppies. We’re not hardcore about potty training yet, but I figured we get her some and let her test them out.

After getting our few things inside, we drove around to the side of the building for our grocery pick-up.

We browsed through Goodwill and the Living Hope thrift stores, but we only got three little girl books that Emerson picked out. And they were on sale today, so I paid like, less than $1.30.

She was dying to put on her little undies when we got home, so we put her tiny toilet in the dining room (on a towel, just in case) so it would be super close while we were playing & eating lunch, and she kept sitting down over & over again every minute or so, but nothing ever happened.

I had picked up a rotisserie chicken while we were at Walmart, so we had that for lunch – Emerson had cheese noodles with her chicken, and once Jeff got home, he and I had rice with ours.

After lunch, I put together a Crock-Pot Creamy White Chicken Chili, to slow-cook for our dinner tonight. It’s from one of my favorite bloggers, so I knew it would be good. (I also love her Indian Butter Chicken, and Chicken Coconut Curry Ramen.)

Emerson was absolutely exhausted by this point, so after a mini-meltdown over… I don’t know, I forget… I got her down for her nap pretty easily. Then it was time to wash up all the dishes and clean the kitchen, and it looked so nice when I was done! I was happy to have things clean and back in order.

After finishing up in the kitchen, I sat down to watch Netflix and write the first half of this blog, while Jeff worked on some laundry. Jeff and I then both ended up napping for about 30 minutes in the living room. Emerson took a pretty decent nap, and woke up in a better mood. We got her dressed in something other than her jammies, and headed out to do some returns/shopping at Old Navy & Kohl’s, and Nana met us there. She chose to wear her beanie again, and she insisted on taking the new Lisa Frank notebook she got from the thrift store, along with a purple colored pencil to match, and these jelly beans Daddy surprised her with.

She stood on the escalator by herself for the first time on the way upstairs at Kohl’s, and then talked about it for the next 30 minutes, because she was dying to do it again. She rode down holding very right to my finger, but loved it so much!

After we finished shopping, we took her to the playground at Myer’s Park, and it was so nice! It’s the exact same playset as the park by our house, except Myers had swings, and she loved that the most!

Oh and she really loved this little excavator (which is similar to how she pronounced “escalator” earlier actually), but the poor tiny thing wasn’t strong enough to do it by herself. Luckily Daddy was there to help get the job done.

We got home just in time for dinner, which was great, because it was practically already done! I just had to shred the two chicken breasts (super easy because they were so tender), then add in the heavy cream & sour cream, to make the “creamy” part of the chili. I also sliced, buttered and toasted half of a french loaf, for some crunchy, crispy-ness to go with it. Oh and I decided to top it with mozzarella cheese, because why not. And it turned out soooo good!

Emerson didn’t like the soup, and since she had only taken like two bites of her breakfast biscuit this morning, she still had plenty of that, so she ate it instead. Well, sorta. She was mostly playing with it, until I told her she had to eat five more bites before she could get down, and then after she took a couple, I kept saying, “ok, three more bites, three more bites…” So she probably took about eight more bites total, and that was a parenting win, thank you very much.

Jeff had two bowls of the chili, but I was full after one bowl & two pieces of bread. But we still had tons left, so I made up three containers, and Jeff is going to take one to share with his buddy Ed at work, since they eat lunch together almost every day.

We did bath time after dinner, making sure to scrub all the mess from underneath her fingernails. (She gets the dirtiest little hands!) Then she got a “mani/pedi” afterwards (which just means I clipped her fingernails & toenails), followed by all the creams and lotions and allergy meds. (She’s still pretty snotty, but not other “symptoms,” so I feel positive it’s just allergies.)

Bedtime went well, and she fell asleep like a good little girl, after books & hugs & prayers & lullabies. It’s still pretty chilly here tonight, so I’ve got on my penguin jammies and socks even (I hate socks), and of course we’re having tea. It’s actually been a while since we’ve had our nightly tea, but we need it tonight to keep warm! Well, I do at least, Jeff is rarely cold, but he likes warm tea anyways.

We did finally finish watching “My Fair Lady” last night, and even though I was wanting something a little more from the ending (it was so vague!), I really enjoyed the movie. So now we need to find something else to get started on, until one or both of us falls asleep in the living room. Night friends!