SCORE!

Today Ella and I met some friends for story time at the library and then had lunch at a yummy restaurant. That is not the remarkable part of the story. After our morning out, I was feeling strangely brave and compelled by my long to-do-list to run some errands. Errands and Ella generally are not a good combination. She doesn't like sitting in carts for very long, she gets bored, and whiny, and when it gets bad, she'll do that limp body thing that every mother of a toddler knows. Basically, it's infuriating. So, I usually run errands alone (thank God I have that luxury-yay for husbands who work at home!). That said, I haven't attempted many errands with Ella recently (like the last 2 1/2 years). But today, I decided to see what would happen. We went to FIVE different places! We were out for THREE hours. And NO meltdowns!!! By either of us! It was amazing! She wasn't angelic per se but she did VERY well. What a wonderful surprise to not come home ready to sell her. Who knows when this will happen again so I thought it was worth documenting. Way to go Ella and praise the Lord!

PS-If you're reading this in a reader or email, go check out my actual blog-I have some fun new thanksgiving decor :-)

Mom's everywhere will be grateful!!

I made a FABULOUS discovery today. So, here's the story. We needed milk and a few other things and I had time so I got brave and decided to take Ella to the grocery store with me. For at least a year now I've been doing most of my grocery shopping at night when Ella can stay home with Chris. She gets bored and it's just not worth the potential of a breakdown or chasing her through the aisles. However, this has been forever changed. Our lovely neighborhood Safeway has replaced their old, rickety, car-shaped, kid-carts for THESE. They're new and shiny and HAVE TVs IN THEM!!!! I was able, at a very user-friendly kiosk, to choose a cartoon (we went for The Backyardigans) and roll away with a VERY happy child. It was a fabulous shopping experience. Thanks Safeway! If there was every any doubt about where I'd shop, they totally just won my vote.