"No Men, Mommy!"

On one of Joe's last days at home with us, he agreed to watch Charlie all afternoon while Ellie, Noni and I all took a girls' day shopping at the outlet mall for Anna's new interview suit.  As Ellie and I left the house to go get Anna, we said goodbye to Daddy and Charlie, closed the back door, stepped into the garage, and Ellie looked at me and said, "No men, Mommy; No men!"  Are you kidding?!  Where in the heck did she learn that one?  Too appropriate to have been what she really meant to say, right?

Because we skipped a nap for Ellie that day, she was exhausted by the time we got into the car that afternoon.  And, of course, she passed out just in time for us to exit the freeway for the mall.  I brought her old single stroller (left the double/Big Blue Cadillac at home) and loaded her into it in a laying down position.  She woke up but was in LOVE with the novelty of being back in the old stroller and getting to lay down flat in it.  The entire time we were at the mall, she rode around like she was on a stretcher and absolutely refused to let me tilt it up any for her.  She was way too big for that thing, and I suffered a perma-heart attack that whole day long worrying about her falling right off the end of it.  She survived without incident, though, and so did I.  And because she was so infatuated with her rolling stretcher, she was absolutely PERFECTLY behaved throughout our whole day of shopping.  I couldn't believe it!  No drama from Ellie and not a whine to be heard from a missing Charlie...it was vacation!  Annie and I had a ball, and Ellie loved telling Auntie Noni how beautiful she looked in the dressing room. All in all, it was a very good day.