Miss Independent

I realized yesterday that it's been a while since you've seen Ilah's cute little face. I'm always posting pictures of her on facebook but I sometimes forget that some of those photos also need to be seen here too : )

Last week I needed to take my mom to an eye doctor appointment in the afternoon. She was having her eyes dilated and couldn't drive herself. Ilah had fallen asleep in the car on the way there but as it's always the case, as soon I parked the car and turned off the engine, she woke up. Instead of taking her up to sit in a waiting room and not knowing how long the wait would be, we headed to Old Navy, which was just up the street. I love their non-slip socks that I get there for Ilah. Immediately when we walked inside of the store, Ilah was fascinated by the life size puppy mannequin...

She showed the girl mannequin some love too. See her holding her hand?! Too funny!....

Ilah did NOT want to leave those mannequins. She wouldn't budge from the front of the store. I eventually had to make up a "go find it" game where I told her that we had to go find some socks that were hidden inside of the store...and then I proceeded to go into that high pitch happy voice that mothers are known to do to get their child excited about something. Ha!

Hey, it got Ilah on the move. So mission accomplished. Until she saw these balls....

Then once again, she parked herself. Ha!....

Do you notice that Ilah isn't in a stroller? She raises holy heck now when I go to put her in it - and sitting her inside of a shopping cart? Yea, that doesn't fly anymore with her either. Miss Independent loves being free. Sometimes she gets her way - and sometimes she doesn't. Depends on what my tolerance level is at the time ; ) I know that she loves to walk around and not be strapped in and I get it, I do...being confined can be annoying. But it's very easy as a parent to get distracted and not keep your eyes on your child 100 percent of the time. All it takes is a few seconds of looking down at your grocery list and then trying to find that item on the store shelf and the next minute your child is out of sight. So when she Ilah is freely walking around, I have my eyes on her at all times...I let her have her time to walk around and we stroll through the store looking at stuff. And then when I feel we've been doing it long enough, into the cart we go -strapped in - so that I can finally zip through the store and get everything I need. Typing "zip through the store" gives me a chuckle....at this age I have learned that there is no "in and out" shopping" anymore.

Anyways, back to Old Navy....naturally the check out line is full of little "things" placed at eye level for the kids to see....

This little car caught Ilah's attention....

And she didn't want to put it down. When I made her...let's just say, she went into full on meltdown. No picture of that because I needed two hands to get her out of the store ; )

My mom's appointment was taking longer than expected so after Old Navy, I went and got Ilah Chick-fil-A for lunch. Here she is goin' to town on a waffle fry....

And just in case Dora was hungry, Ilah fed her one too ; ) ....

A cute little book came in the kids meal pack. Ilah LOVES books....

My mom still wasn't done with her appointment so I took Ilah up the street for us to roam around Toys-R-Us. She grabbed this candy from Halloween and pretended that it was a microphone....Silly girl!....

She noticed these reptiles and stopped to feel them. I'm glad she didn't love on them for too long because if she ever became fascinated by snakes and asked for one, that would be a no-go!.....

From reptiles to puppy's. A good transition! Ha! Ilah loves dogs and since we won't be buying one {I say never, the hubby says eventually}, I think these walking play puppy's are SO cute. Not cheap at $59.99, but they bark and walk like a real dog and come on a leash so you can take it for a walk. Ilah would love it. It's the last thing on her Christmas list that I'm up in the air about getting because the age is 4 yrs and up. I'm thinking maybe it's a gift that would be best to get her next year when she's 3. I did buy her one for Christmas that is similar, and smaller, and was only $15 at Walmart.

Can you guess another toy that Ilah got for Christmas? Yep...a little shopping cart....

Onto dolls....

Giving the baby a paci. Ha!....

I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw that Graco makes deluxe playard's and strollers for baby DOLLS. These things are FANCY. Look at the print pattern!....

My mom called while we were at Toys-R-Us to let me know her appointment was over so off we went to go get her. We were on the other side of town around 4 pm so unfortunately we ran into MAJOR traffic coming home....

Stand still, bumper to bumper traffic. Ugh!!

Just a few more days left until Christmas!!! I can't believe it's already here!!! It seems like it should still be summer.