Girls’ day out

My kiddo and I run errands together all the time.  In fact, the first location besides home that she knew by name was Target.  She learned church right after that, which made me feel a little better, but she loves going shopping with me or anything that we need to do.  In the last couple of months, I have gotten braver about letting her out of the cart or stroller and walking on her own.  She loves being more independent.  And I’ve realized that I love the interaction it allows us to have.

The kiddo enjoying her lunch out with mommy. We seldom go out to eat just the two of us. It was fun for us both!

While this doesn’t work for big grocery shopping trips, it’s great for in and out trips to various stores.  I had a couple of those trips to make last Friday.  I’m trying to find some decorations for her new big girl room.  I am so not good at this kind of stuff, but thanks to my sister-in-law, group of mom friends, my own mom and the Internet, I had some ideas.  We first headed to a fabric and craft store.  The kiddo had her snack cup, owl hat and Hello Kitty sunglasses.  When I asked whether she wanted the stroller or to walk, her response, of course, was to walk.  We went over the rules.  She had to listen to me and do what I said, she had to stay with me and she had to hold my hand when I told her to.  She nodded very seriously and then said she’d do all of that. And she did.

We wandered around the store.  I picked up a few things, took photos of other things for ideas for later and then paid for our purchases.  She kept me entertained and enjoyed looking around, too.  We went a bit farther down in the plaza to hit up another home interior/craft store.  This time, I opted to put her in the stroller because it’s a store filled with lots of breakables.  She was finished with her snack cup, so she grabbed a doll and was happy to go in the stroller.  She tolerated me shopping through that store.  She mostly wanted me to push her and let her glide ahead of me and then try to catch her.  But, it was fun and I got some more things and ideas.

Then we headed to the mall.  We don’t usually go to the mall a lot, but since she’s been able to walk with me more, I’ve found it’s a pretty decent place for her to be able to stretch her legs and get moving during colder weather.  After perusing a store, we decided to hit up a local hot dog place for lunch.  She told me what she wanted and “helped” me carry the highchair to our table.  She ate lots of ketchup with her hot dog and fries.  She was happy.

Hanging out on a bench together sharing a chocolate chip cookie is a nice way to enjoy girls' day out.

We treated ourselves to a shared chocolate chip cookie after that sitting on a bench in front of a shoe store.  My daughter loves shoes.  She insisted that we shoe shop.  Neither one of us really needed shoes, but I agreed.  We had time to kill before nap time, anyway.  The first store we went into I ended up finding a pair of ankle boots for only $12.99 (marked down from $60!).  Who could resist?  We didn’t find anything for her, though.  So, we went across the hall to another shoe store.  They had a better selection in her size.  I let her pick out her own pair of shoes.  She was so excited.  We left with hot pink rubbery shoes.  They are cute and comfy.  And she loves them.  They only cost a couple of dollars more than what I bought for myself.  The kiddo definitely loved picking them out on her own.  She loved even more when the super nice woman working at the store gave her two stickers.

She insisted on carrying the bag herself, even though it dragged the floor.  She handed it over to me about 10 minutes later, though, as we made our way to the car.

Checking out her sticker on the way to the car. New shoes AND stickers? Life is good!

It was a good day.  We didn’t do anything monumental.  It wasn’t anything spectacular, but it reminded me of a few things.  First, my child is growing up (duh!) and she is a lot of fun to hang out with.  We had some good and funny conversations.  She kept me entertained.  Second, my child is thrilled with small things like picking out shoes, looking at cookies in the glass display case and carrying her own bag.  Third, everyday errands can be so much more fun than they ever used to be.  They can create memories and happy feelings that will stick with me for a long time.  Finally, it reminded me that there are times we can be friends more than mother and daughter.  I am always her mom. I watch out for her, make sure she has everything she needs and remind her how to be on her best behavior.  And while that’s important and completely what she needs right now, there are still some times, even now at age 2, that we can just hang out like friends.  It makes me look forward to the relationship we will (hopefully) have when she is an adult — one that I pray looks much like the one I have with my own mother.

Girls’ day out with the kiddo?  Yeah.  Sign me up for another one!