My plans for this weekend changed a few times . . . first I was going to help my mom do some cleaning and organizing, then I was going to stay home with the kids while Trav went to the lake, and finally, I was going to stay home with the girls while Trav took Ryan to the lake - so which scenario actually happened? None. In the end, Trav went to the lake with Ryan and Lauren (and the dog too) while Ellie and I ventured south to spend some time with Grandma and Grandpa Loken. With no real plans to do anything in particular, I wasn't expecting much from the weekend . . . boy was I wrong! It turned out the "I only have one kid" weekend worked out great for me to get some shopping done (my main goal was to get Lauren's birthday gift). Well, as with most things, my quick little shopping trip turned into much, much more. When the weekend was all said and done, Grandma and I made just two short trips to Mankato and purchased all of my Christmas gifts for the kids!! Yes, that is right, I am officially done Christmas shopping (well at least for the kids, I'll still have a few gifts to pick up here and there, but the "heavy lifting" is done). Like I said, we started out small (one birthday gift), but once we got rolling (and the discounts kept adding up), it would have almost been stupid for us to stop. There were little to no crowds, there were great sales (at least on the items that were on my list), I was almost kid-free, and I had a shopping helper to boot - talk about ideal! And the best part about all of it . . . when everyone else is going crazy trying to get there lists complete in the freezing cold, I'll be sitting at home sipping on a nice warm cocoa - such a great thing to look forward to! As you can tell, I'm pretty excited (and I'm pretty sure the kids will be too once they open their gifts in just 49 short days)!
After reading this, you might start to wonder where Ellie was during all of this shopping craziness. Well, as luck would have it (or not really luck because she always sleeps a lot), she went down for naps right before we left on our shopping trips, and woke up right after (or shortly after) we returned (neither trip was more than 2 1/2 hrs long and she usually sleeps for 3 hrs). And while she was napping, Grandpa Jim was "babysitting" (I use that term loosely because although he did check on her during our outing on Sat, Sunday proved to be too much for him and I'm pretty sure he did more napping than "babysitting" - oh well, at least they were both well rested when we returned). So there you have it, Ellie napped, Grandpa "babynapped" (a new term combining babysitting and napping all in one - only very skilled people should attempt this), and although things went pretty smooth, Ellie didn't want to Grandpa off too easily so she let him in on the fun of changing one of her "teething" diapers - let's just say it ain't pretty and Grandpa would be more than happy if he never had to experience that again!
So thanks Grandma for being my shopping partner, and thanks Grandpa for babysitting (and Ellie says thanks too for wiping her butt, she really appreciates it especially because she knows how horrible her diapers smell)!
Until next time . . .
