shopping

I like to tease my little girls that they are my favorite shopping partners--they love everything! My favorite place to take them was the Carter's outlet store. We haven't been there for awhile but I used to put my little Ladybug in her stroller and ask Butterfly to put one hand on the stroller as we browsed the store. The girls loved it. Ladybug would stare with big eyes and giggle and coo while Butterfly, forgetting my instructions would dash from rack to rack to point things out to me. "oh! so schute!" and she would frequently pick things out and pile them onto the top of the stroller "this for baby!" or "this for Rae-Rae".

More recently, we were out running errands and someone was selling puppies in front of the store. My little ladybug loves animals and they seem to love her too. We call her our little horse whisperer because even grandma's horses will come to her for her to pet and coo to them. She isn't at all afraid of them and talks as if they understand her completely. Anyway, she saw these little puppies and lunged towards them the best she could with the cart seatbelt holding her back. "please! Hold it! Hold it!" She begged. I love dogs, but I don't want one right now so I said no, told her to wave and started to leave. "please! Hold it!" She continued and cried the whole way home. She's 18 months old and already begging for a dog. Oh dear.

We spent yesterday running errands and shopping for Butterfly's birthday party and for our upcoming trip. They were wonderful little helpers. They helped pick things out and put things into the cart (often things I hadn't picked out and sometimes didn't notice until we got to the register), chatted and giggled with the cashiers, giggled with delight as they ran up and down the toy aisle, moved clothes from one rack to another regardless of style, size or price and generally were crazy little toddlers. Little Butterfly announced to anyone who would listen that "this for my tea party birthday" and when asked, declared herself to be three (while holding up four fingers). Eventually bedtime rolls around but we are still out shopping (bad mom I know, I always underestimate how much time I need for errands) So we dash to finish before the girls get too cranky and then I get to enjoy a long but peaceful drive home, accompanied by the delicate little snores from two very beautiful girls in the backseat.