It's the Little Things

We are on day 5 of this little Ellie illness. Honestly, she seems to be feeling much better but we aren't taking any chances. I don't want to push her into a normal routine. It's so hard at this age - when they can't just TELL you if they hurt or if they are feeling less than 100%. So, in the meantime, we are giving her a few extra days to recuperate.

Aside from the doctor visit, I have not really left the house since Tuesday. We went to the doctor on Wednesday, and on Thursday Ellie and I got in the car and drove around for an hour so we could have a change of scenery, but other than that, we've been here. No park. No going on walks. Not even to the grocery store. So.... this weekend I was ready for a break.

On Saturday, I had the privilege of going to Books-a-Million in the Katy Mills Mall to have "The Antelope in the Living Room" signed by its fabulous author. Melanie Shankle wrote a sequel to "Sparkly Green Earrings" (both of these books are available on Amazon) and I am about 75% of the way through with it and I have laughed on every page. Seriously, if you are married or if you ever plan to be married, it's well worth the read. Anyways, she was having a book signing and I was determined to be there with or without Ellie. Melanie follows me on Instagram and was slightly disappointed that I didn't bring Ellie with me, but I think once she found out that flu germs would have accompanied her, she was just fine with my decision!

Our friends Ricky and Olga and their pumpkin baby girl, Blythe, are moving to Houston this Spring and have been in town for the last few weeks. Olga loved "Sparkly Green Earrings" so she came with me to have her book signed as well.

Here we are with the lady of the hour. (I wish you could see her sweater in all of its perfection.)

I'd like to go ahead and admit that I cropped the photo so closely on the left side because I had a wonky piece of hair sticking straight out and I just can't put that on the internet.

Melanie was so gracious and funny and chatted with us for a few minutes. I almost asked her to lunch. That would be weird, right?

Thankfully, Olga and I did go to lunch afterwards. We went to Chuy's and sat outside (can we just have a moment of praise about the weather warming up a bit?!) and shared chips, queso, and fajitas. God bless Texas. Neither of us had our children with us and after the week that I had, it was so, so nice to just sit and visit and not be worrying about temperatures and medicine.

And then we decided to pop into an Open House in my neighborhood and for a split second I think the realtor believed that me and Olga were a couple. And we got quite tickled about that.

Ellie has been begging to go outside. While we aren't quite ready to take her to a playground, we did decide to load her up last night and put her in a stroller to take a walk around the mall. She loved it and it was the most exercise I've had in days. Power walking, eating in a food court, and topping it off with the Great American Cookie Company. That's my kind of work out!

And, to top it all off, we skipped church this morning (bummer) so we don't get other babies sick, but Grant stayed at the house with Ellie while I took an early morning HEB trip all by myself. It was glorious. And then I stopped at Starbucks on my way home.

Basically, I'm super giddy about a morning with a friend, power walking through a mall without buying anything, and grocery shopping by myself. Anything is better than sitting on a couch holding a sick baby while watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse for the umpteenth time.

Except the holding the baby thing isn't all that bad. That's actually pretty gosh darn sweet. Or, as Goofy would say, "Gawrsh!"