Shopping Madness

Ree is such a girlie girl, and as a result, she is really in to shopping.  Which is somewhat unfortunate, since I'm not a huge shopper these days.  I don't have anything against it, I am just lacking time and money.  Thankfully, Ree is easy to please.  As long as she can visit Target or Walmart and Harris Teeter each week, she is a happy camper.

Every now and then we try for a bigger adventure.  Sometimes, we fail horribly.  I learned back in February, that you can do extra things, like take her to Toys R Us, but you better not skip the regular shopping.  It would be like, hmmm, I can't really think of an example right now, but it would be bad.

The exception to the mandatory weekly trips is when we have company.  Ree may have rules for everything, but she is also good at knowing when to apply them.  (I read somewhere that being able to apply different rules to different situations is a sign of a successful person.  If success increases with the number of rules and situations, Ree is going to have one amazing life ahead of her!)  And Ree knows that when we have company, things are different.

So when Jeff's parents were visiting, Ree insisted we have some time for "just the girls," so one afternoon she and I went shopping at Kohl's with Jeff's mom.  When we got there, we headed straight to the toddler department.  Ree wanted to ride in the cart, and she was issuing orders.  (Perhaps it's time to cut back on the princess movies...)  We started looking for shirts, and she caught Jeff's mom looking at a stack of shirts that had a bigger size on top.  Ree dutifully informed her, "It has to say '2T.'"  (She might just be the only child ever to have the bossiness of a 4-year-old and still wear a 2T.)  Once that matter was settled, Ree then proceeded to locate every pink or fuschia outfit in the store.

Once the outfits were selected, I took her to the fitting room to try on the clothes.  Although she had watched me try on clothes, she had never actually done it.  I was afraid she was going to get upset.  With all her rules, she is not good with situations.  But, possibly because she is well informed on fitting rooms from reading Baby Blues, she was excited.  In fact, you would've thought I had taken her to Disney World.  Trying on clothes was the best thing EVER.  When she found something she liked, she twirled and spun.  I'm pretty sure at one point she even added "Whee!  This is fun."

I must remember this, and torture her with this knowledge, when she is 13 and shopping for jeans or a bathing suit.  It's my duty as a mother.

Out and About

Since I last wrote:

• I had a day in which my only accomplishment was putting on deodorant. At 3:00 in the afternoon.
• I met a mom with twin five-month-olds and a four-year-old in the parking lot of Kohl's. It took her over 10 minutes to get her kids in the car after shopping. While she was loading her offspring, we chatted. She reassured me it does get better. She added, and I quote, "You still won't have time for a shower," but she did reiterate that it will get better.
• In attempted to detemine why I don't have time to shower, I worked on quantifying how I spend my time. I didn't know if I should be disturbed or impressed by the number of hours a day that are devoted to feeding various members of the family. I think I'll post the numbers separately.
• Because of the hour spent devoted to feeding various members of the family, I decided to give up breastfeeding. Except for pumping at work. But the boys sensed it and then nursed better than they ever had. So I decided I loved breastfeeding. And then my milk supply went down. And I decided I was sick of it again. We are now at a standstill.
• Based on the above, I realized that now is not the time for me to make major life decisions. Or any decisions. At all.
• On Monday the whole family went out to lunch for Jeff's birthday. Jeff pointed out that it was the first whole-family outing since October. We were overdue. We had lunch at Moe's. The boys slept the whole time. It was successful.
• It took us 4 hours to get ready for that lunch which lasted 45 minutes. Lunch would've been even shorter if R hadn't been sucked into watching the TV's at Moe's.
• R and I picked up fried chicken for dinner for Jeff's birthday. When we pulled into the parking lot, she started saying, "No, no, no!" We were at Church's Chicken. She thought we were going to church. She was heartbroken. She also insists that we pray any time all three of us sold-food eaters converge at the table. Where did this child come from? And, yes, I will take her to church soon. How can I say no to a child who is sad you are getting fried chicken instead of going to church?
  
• On Tuesday I went to Wal-Mart by myself with the boys. (Disclaimer: Five people + two dogs = expensive. We will support the evil empire at least for now) . It was the first time I had taken them anywhere truly in public by myself. Other excursions had been limited to doctor's appointments and a trip to a La Leche League meeting on Saturday in which I fell back in love with breastfeeding. The trip was actually successful.
• I did learn that getting newborn twins out of the car in the pouring rain is not fun or easy.
• The rest of the trip was rather fun and easy.
• We finally sent out the last of our Christmas cards today. Not even a month late. We rock!