In Search of Myself: Is that for me?

Thursday afternoon I stopped by Target on my way home -- had to buy a gift for L's baby shower (a girl from my Sunday School class who I *kind* of know/am getting to know better). While I was there, I bought a few things for Jennifer (Ryan's mom) and her twins. I don't know if my church is going to give her a baby shower, because the general rule is a shower just for the first baby, but hopefully we will do something. But I wanted to get her a gift, regardless. I got her two Classic Pooh 3-6 month outfits (she's having twins, remember, and her kids tend to be big, so 0-3 mos. would be pointless), and two 12 mos. pull-over sweaters (which I think her June babies will be able to wear by Christmas.) One is blue, one is red -- they were $5 on clearance. Anyway, is freaking EVERYONE pregnant right now? (Aside from me and Sue?) I swear I saw like 7 pregnant women in Target, and 2 newborn babies. And maybe pregnant people just happen to go to Target because that's where they have all the great baby stuff, I don't know. But it really seems like it's everyone.

So I take the gifts home (after picking Jake up from my mom's) and sit down to wrap them up. When I was done, I put them on top of the entertainment center so Jake couldn't reach them. He pointed to them and said "Rip? Rip?" He thought they were presents for him and he wanted to open them. I said "No, they're not for you. Do you want me to wrap up some of your toys so you can open them?" "YEAH." So I used all the left-over Sesame Street wrapping paper I'd kept in the garage (which Jake tries to grab every time I step in there for something) and Jake kept bringing me Fisher Price Little People to wrap up. You wouldn't believe how much fun he has doing this. We sat in the floor for 45 minutes. He was very disappointed when all the paper was gone, and I promised him we would buy more paper on Saturday. And he helped me clean up all the paper. (We do not make messes at our house without cleaning up afterwards, everyone helping. He's so funny. He now says "Mom. Help me.")

Saturday afternoon we went to a Dollar Tree close to our house that we'd never gotten around to going in. Holy crap, it was huge. Dollar Tree is getting to be a big thing 'round these parts, and this was like SUPER-Dollar Tree. We found the wrapping paper section and Jake picked out a roll with dogs (big surprise) and one with baseballs. I also let him pick out a pack of stickers. So everyone, take note: it takes about $3.27 (counting sales tax) to become your child's hero. ;o) I actually really enjoy silly little errands like this with Jake. We came home and spent TONS of time in the floor -- went through ALL the dog paper and half the ball paper. Here are some pictures -- I think he had a good time. ;o)