The Ladies Who Lunch

So yesterday Spills and I took ourselves on a girls' outing, while Daddy worked. I believe we had the better end of the deal.

We started by buying books at Chapters -- a bunch of gifts for her cousins, who we'll be seeing this weekend. Then we found a pile of beginning readers for Spills herself, as well as a sticker book. Spilly is a sucker for all kinds of stickers. And I am a sucker for the silence that falls whenever Spills works on a sticker book.

Next, we headed to Wal-Mart for a few boring necessities. We also fell into the delightful conversation that all parents look forward to wholeheartedly:

"Mommy, can I buy that?"

"No."

Occasionally, she'd experiment with mind-games: "Mommy, I think we really need that for your gardening. We could put those stickers on sticks beside each of your flowers. Wouldn't that look nice?"

"No."

Or else she'd play the grief card: "I have asked and I have asked, and you have always said no. Are you going to say yes this time, about this [insert the name of wonderful thing here]????"

"No."

Then we took ourselves out for lunch, just the two of us, to Kelsey's. We NEVER have lunch in a restaurant with just the two of us. Spills thought it was marvellous. She was excellent company, too. Our discussions ranged from how to create secondary colours (we experimented using the three primary-coloured crayons given to us) to how the dinosaurs died. Spills would like to see the crater left behind by the asteroid. She is disappointed to learn that it is under water.

The best part was heading home afterwards to try to read some of our books. She got into a rhythm: first she would read a book, and then she would leap around the living room, yelling, "And now, an American Idol CELEBRATION!!"

And I sat there thinking about what good company she was, on the whole, and what a lucky Mommy I was to be mentally exhausted all the time.