Day Forty Eight - an outing with Emily, who starts daycare tomorrow

For starters, I decided that I needed more social interaction.  And I also decided that Emily needed proper shoes for school - saltwater sandals are the only real option for a little girl in the summer.  All my girls wore them every year.  I can remember that each summer Heidi would get a pair that was two sizes bigger than the one she had worn the previous year, while Annie, Corey, and Sarah always go a pair one size bigger.  Emily was really excited about going to the store for new shoes. 

I hadn't picked up Emily and Annie until sometime around noon.  I must have just dinked earlier.  No, actually, I think I had given Riley a ride to work.  He had woken up at about 5:30 muttering something about needing to take cupcakes to work.  So finally I said, come on, let's go down stairs and I'll tell you how to make cupcakes.   I needed to be there with him, because his main way of cooking is to beat the food vigorously, and I knew that would not do with the cake - all the baking soda would be expended before the cakes made it into the oven.  I had him make cockeyed cupcakes, and he did a very nice job.  In the end we frosted them and I put on the sprinkles to give them a festive air.  He also had enough batter left for a small bundt cake, upon which he put the left-over icing and topped it with coconut.


Then, after dropping off Riley and his cupcakes at work I decided to go to Goodwill.  I wasn't there too long, but long enough to find a few good books - two books by Mark Twain: a hard back Tom Sawyer and an illustrated hard back of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, and a French knitting book.  Then I briefly went home before picking up Annie and Emily.

We decided to do sushi for lunch.  But we parked the car at the Lloyd Center.  Emily was put into her stroller and we walked to the sushi restaurant.  As we approached the restaurant Emily yelled out "Japanese".  I am endlessly amazed at her recognition of ethnic groups.  She was really delighted to be going to sushi.  We were given a booth and Emily scrambled right up to the belt.  I had to keep my eye on her, as she loved the idea of grabbing whatever she wanted.  She shared a California sushi with me, and then a chocolate eclair, and sesame bean paste balls, and finally she chowed down on some of Annie's vegetable tempura.  All in all we had a good time.

Then it was off to the Lloyd Center.  We first went to Marshall's because that was the first door we came to.  In the basement there were children's shoes.  I tried two sandals on Emily, they were a little too cute, and were made entirely of man-made materials.  So I put the shoes back in their boxes and we headed for Nordstrum's.  After circling the children's shoe department completely I finally spotted just what I wanted - salt water sandals.  They were white - perfect.  I got Emily out of her stroller and had her sit up in a chair.  She was a bit confused.  But as soon as the salesman appeared with two boxes of shoes and sat on the stool in front of her she seemed to be totally with the program.  She seemed to love the experience of having him slip the shoe on her foot and buckle it.  I got the feeling that she suddenly saw herself either in a fairy tale, or as Marie Antoinette.  When both shoes were on we asked her to get down and run around in the new shoes to see how they fit and felt.  She was soon prancing and doing pirouettes. I immediately told the clerk we'd take then and that she would continue to wear them, as she had no other shoes to wear.  What a delight to find exactly what you want and have it be just right.

Emily was then taken to the restroom, and then put back into the stroller with much protesting on her part.  She then wanted to go to the bookstore. But it wasn't long before I knew we needed to head home.  I was getting tired, as was Emily.  It had been a fun outing.  I can only hope that Heidi will put those nice sandals on Emily.  I know they aren't froofrooie enough for Heidi, but they look great on Emily and are very sensible.