Girls Day Out

We survived a trip to the mall. No, not our local mall. The Babe and I met my sister and niece at Gurnee Mills, a very large indoor outlet mall on the northern end of Illinois. I went in knowing that a) its not too far from home (meaning way under an hour), b) we wouldn't be there more than 2 hours, and c) my sister's a lot more patient than I am (and in some ways, nicer, too). So off we went.

The car ride started out fine, until the Babe declared she wanted pretzels. I brought with Corn Chex, which she did not want. I did not bring pretzels, and offered to stop at the one store en route that carried her specialty pretzels that are both gluten free and way over-priced. Its not like I just run into a gas station or drive-thru for them. She didn't want to stop, but she certainly wanted pretzels, crying for them for twenty minutes of the ride. My super-nice sister, knowing this, stopped and got the next best substitute- potato chips.

While at the mall, the girls had fun chasing each other, trying to get into everything, and then, for a while, contentedly eating potato chips in their strollers. At one point, while reaching over, I narrowly missed clocking my niece with my saddlebag, a.k.a. my big momma purse. No, I'm not a big momma (well, relatively speaking), but my purse certainly is. It does double duty as a diaper bag. My sister made a comment, and I explained the reason. I have just about everything in it but the kitchen sink. The contents of my purse include: pants, shirt and socks for the Babe, 2-3 diapers, a package of wipes, bags for said diapers, epi-pens stored in a case, benadryl, inhaler with the breathing chamber (picture 8-10 inch plastic tube), wallet, cell phone, juice box, water bottle, and more. The items mentioned though make up the brunt of it, which but for the beverages and inhaler get carried with us at all times. I can't wait for her to be out of diapers, but suspect my bag will just get filled up with other junk. Anyhow, we got out today, we survived the trip, and now we're home. I'm ready for her nap and/or a big cup of coffee.