Yesterday, 27 Feb 2011, was a long-overdue Mommy-Shingil date since probably before I got pregnant with Shinah. We've always done things as a family whenever we had time off, and yes, Tay and I did stuff together when Jeff went away for exercise, but for me, it was mostly to fill time for her so she doesn't get stressed (and I don't get stressed) about missing Daddy. What we did yesterday was something entirely different. The day focused on her and her alone...and she's been needing this for at least the past five months.
As usual, Riley woke up around 6am so instead of just going to the living room as I usually do, I just went into the guest bedroom so we wouldn't disturb Tay from her slumber. She got to sleep in until 8:15 when she woke up on her own in a fantastic mood. Great start to the day! We got ready and were out the door by 9:15. We went straight to Beth's house to drop off Riley, and then we were off to start our mommy-daughter date. I was a little concerned that the rainy weather would put a damper on our day, but we decided to make it fun instead by trying to dodge the rain, splashing in puddles along the way, and driving safely. ;)
First, we went to the DHL for breakfast. We just went down to the bakery and I let her pick out whatever she wanted, so she chose a donut with chocolate glaze and sprinkles ("because [she] loooooves chocolate!"). I got myself a cinnamon roll. We some milk, too. We ate it right there in front of the bakery chatting about what we were going to do today. We finished our happy breakfast and we went to our next destination - the salon! We were going to get our nails done. :) She was so excited...this was her second or third time getting her nails done at the salon...so we got seated and they started. They first had her pick out what color nail polish she wanted with an array of different colors and as the lady flipped the pages, she pointed out a few she liked, but ultimately she settled on an unbelievably bright pink shade and then proceeded to ask me what color I would like. Then she asked if I would like pink, too. Okay! :) I thought, wouldn't it be nice for both of us to have the same color. Day-glow pink. Yeah!
After our pampering session at the salon, we make a quick stop at the toy store to take a look around, "dodged" the rain and made it to the PX to pick up some batteries and a pack of M&Ms (to keep her awake in the car ride to our destination), and "dodged" back to the car...only partially soaked. Who needs umbrellas anyway?
We plugged in our destination into the navigator, turned on some Disney princess music, and we were off to our special destination - Hello Kitty Town! She didn't know where we were going, to it was fun to keep her guessing, even up until we got all the way to the parking garage. She still had no idea (the signs are not so obvious). When we got there, we found a great parking spot (or so I thought) and then proceeded to get a little lost on our way to Hello Kitty Town. We went up and down a couple escalators and elevators...then finally found the right elevator that spit us out RIGHT in Hello Kitty Town! :) Now I know.
Hello Kitty Town...what a WONDERFUL place! It's definitely on a smaller scope than the Dalki Farmer's Kids Cafe, but it also had much less traffic (and younger kids) than Dalki, which worked great for me. Getting there is longer, but it's actually because of distance and not traffic. It's about 30km away, but pretty much a straight shot instead of a bunch of turns and such. Anyhow, on with the place. The play area, I think, is smaller than Dalki, but the seating area is much larger...or at least it seemed like it was because perhaps there were fewer people. There are a couple different ball pits, a train ride (just for the little ones), trampoline areas, small slides and climbing things, a book/puzzles/games/blocks room, and a dress up room with a few different outfits for the kids to wear around. Tay's favorite was this floor-length Cinderella dress. There was a full length mirror for her to admire herself, and she did that for about five minutes...turning and looking and turning and looking...very cute. While she was doing that, a little boy...probably about five years old...was watching her as his little siblings were getting dressed up, too...apparently he was quite taken with her many facial expressions in the mirror because after that, he'd periodically show up where ever she was playing and just watch her play with this goofy little grin on his face. He never did approach her or anything...the closest interaction they got was when they were in the ball pit and she was putting some in her "basket"...he helped her load up the basket a couple times and just grinned the entire time. It was really cute to watch...she said "hi" to him a couple of times, but I think it just made him grin even wider. He was clearly smitten. Back to the dress...it was slightly too long for her, but she loved it nonetheless, so she wore it around pretty much the entire time we were there. It got in her way when she tried climbing much of the equipment, but she still wanted to leave it on, so I let her...since it was her day. Just had to keep watching in case she slipped. For lunch we just shared a crispy chicken salad, fries (not impressive), and a mud ice cream pie slice. Delicious. Tay was so busy playing, she didn't want to sit down to eat!
Finally, when it was time to go, she REALLY didn't want to go, but she was so tired and on the verge of getting really cranky. I told her she could pick out two things she wanted from the store before we left, so she agreed and picked stickers and a small Hello Kitty cup. I promised her we'd come back soon so we could play some more. We made our way down to the car, buckled her up in her car seat, turned on some princess music again, and we were off. Five minutes after getting on the road, the Tay was out cold and slept the entire way back to pick up Riley. It took us about 30 minutes to get there with no traffic and it took us about 45 minutes to get back...with traffic. Not bad for a RAINY day. :)
My sweet sweet girl...we really needed that time together. My goal is to give her a little more personalized attention every day, even if it's only after Riley goes down for the night. I must get back to my rule of "no computer or internet (to include smartphone) while the girls are awake...especially during the week. So...please don't be surprised if I don't respond or see your email until late at night or only during the work day. I need to focus more on my kids...I miss out too much while I'm at work...::sigh::
I love you, Shingil Taylor Ryals.
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