Daddy Trip Away

The last weekend in March was Casey's wedding. Casey is Michael's friend from college though they knew each other before then, and Michael was a groomsmen at the wedding. It was held in Houston, so unfortunately the kids and I were unable to go which meant that we were going to have a long weekend home alone without Daddy.

Michael's birthday was the 6th of April, so for his trip I bought him the early birthday present of a PSP Vita, which is a little video game console. It is pretty neat, I think, and it is good for long car rides and airplane flights and waiting in the airport, all the general tedium of out-of-town travel.

The Tuesday before he left, Rhonda invited me to a ladies' luncheon at LCU so I got to go to a fancy, girly lunch in the middle of the day...it was really nice. The speaker was this absolutely precious woman who seems very sweet, and we had stuffed chicken kiev. While I was at that, Michael took Emerald and Benjamin (Gabriel was at school) to special Daddy lunch. I told Emerald about having lunch with Glo and Grannymom, but the only thing she remembered from my story was that I didn't eat my salad!

Michael left at about 4.30 Friday morning, so Rhonda helped us get Gabe to school that morning. He rides the bus only in the afternoon right now and still has Daddy drop him off every morning. Rhonda only works a half day on Fridays so she asked if Emerald, Benjamin, and I would like to go to lunch and then shopping for Emerald's room.

I have been meaning to do something about Emerald's room for a while now because she needs a place that is her own, somewhere that reflects her personality and where she can go to be by herself. Unfortunately, interior design is so alien to me that I could not mentally pull together a coherent idea for her space. I was struggling isolating what she likes from what I like, what would make her happy, and how I would go about creating a room she would be happy in for a while. Do I go with a theme? Certain characters? What colors to use?

Luckily for me, my mother-in-law excels where I am so obviously inept at decorating. We decided the overall "theme" would be pink and girly, and play it by ear as to what we saw that we liked that reflected Emerald.

For lunch, we went to Emerald's absolute favorite--Furr's. I have to admit, I have never been a big fan of this senior-friendly cafeteria style restaurant, but now that I have children with a wide variety of tastes, it is an ideal place for our family. Emerald and Gabriel can chose foods based on their ever-changing palette and if they are unhappy with their choices they are free to get an alternative; and the mushy, soft foods that are predominately served are perfect for teething, curious Benjamin. It has been good for me as well as I am trying to watch what I eat--I get moderate portions and then share directly with Benjamin meaning that I eat less (he often eats more than I do!).

Emerald had a bit of a behavioral moment at Furr's, where she wanted to keep the bones from the fried chicken on her plate and decided screaming was the best way to address the situation. I am not in the least embarrassed by the kids' emotional outbursts, having had lots of practice with Emerald and Gabriel all ready, so she evened out quickly enough, apologized to Glo, and ate the rest of her meal in peace.

After Furr's, we went to Hobby Lobby which I would have never guessed...I go there for whatever craft of the week I have decided to try my hand at, but I didn't know they had adorable things for a little girls room. We picked out a lamp first--there were lots of cute pink lamps, like leopard print and some with fuzzy boas, pink and green plaid or polka dots, and all different sizes. Rhonda spotted a light pink one...it is hard to describe and I am having a wretched time trying to find a picture, but it is cylindrical and has wire white flowers on it...it is quite pretty.

At Hobby Lobby, we also found a round hot pink rug with multi-colored pom poms around the edge; a antique-looking pink light switch cover, and a big glittery turquoise "E" for her door. Emerald behaved herself well in that store.

After we left there, we went to Wal-Mart. We were hoping still to find curtains and a bedspread. Once there, though, Emerald started having trouble. She became attached to a blue stuffed bunny that she was very vocally unwilling to relinquish, she fought holding anyone's hand, wanted to run off and around, and showed zero interest in what we were trying to do. We couldn't find bedding or curtains that we liked, but we got her a new pillow and a long hot pink mirror for her closet door, as well as a few pairs of shorts as most of her wardrobe is more wintery.

Rhonda brought me back home, but took Emerald to her house to spend the night so that I would have only the two boys to deal with. Beth and David came over to visit for a while, then I made barbeque pork tacos and we went to bed.

It was a rough night. Gabriel wanted the television to be playing all night, not so that he could watch it but because he liked the noise. Well, all the noise and distractions and lights were keeping Ben up. I had been keeping the door to my bedroom closed so that Gabe would assume Daddy was back there and not gone, but he got up in the middle of the night and went searching for Daddy. When he discovered that Michael was not in bed, he had the biggest temper tantrum that I have ever seen from him--he was exhausted and terrified.

Saturday, Beth brought us donuts and kolaches for breakfast and when Rhonda brought Emerald back, we all loaded up (Beth included) to go to the Wal-Mart closer to our house to look for the finishing touches for Emerald's room. That store didn't have what we needed either, so we decided as a last Hail Mary to go to Target and see what they had to offer.

Right away, we find a gorgeous light pink quilt with ruffle flowers!! ....but it was silly expensive, and didn't even come with sheets or anything. So we keep looking and find a similar hot pink bed-in-a-bag with the decorative ruffles. We all three like it and Emerald seems to approve so we get that.

Everything said and done, the room looks really nice. She has her pink princess canopy with silvery stars and moons on it, and an explosion of pink all over everything. I am still looking for the words for her wall so that I can complete her picture and we never found curtains or blinds that we liked, but Emerald has her special little zone now :)

--Andie--