Today I am 32 weeks pregnant. For the past few weeks I've been back to cross-stitching again, and making the requisite multiple visits to Michaels. So far I've gone to the one in Des Peres multiple times, the one in Chesterfield Valley twice, and today once to the one in Brentwood. The Brentwood one used to be the one I'd go to when we first moved to St Louis, because it was the closest one to our apartment, but today I was struck by how awful it was compared to the others. The down escalator wasn't working (which seemed to be more than half the time I patronised that branch), and the shelves were pretty empty. I couldn't get everything that I wanted to get, so I foresee yet another Michaels visit occurring soon, unless the 2 purple threads I bought today are sufficient to fill up the pattern of a Christmas tree ornament that I'm making.
The down escalator being out of action proved very problematic for me today, because I had to handle E on that (and the up one too), while holding a shopping basket. At one point E was climbing me like a monkey (because she was scared), and I had to grab her with one hand while holding on the shopping basket with the other, as I prayed for us to not topple off the moving upwards escalator. At least on the trip down the broken down escalator, a nice woman passing by helped me carry my shopping basket to the bottom. While there was a lift, E didn't want to get into it, sigh.
Anyway we only went to that Michaels because we were in the area, and I thought I could make a quick trip to Nordstrom Rack to see if they had any toddler shoes for sale. We had driven Eastwards from home (as opposed to South or West, which seems to be our usual direction now) because today E was finally given a slot for her flu shot, and her doctor is located in the Ladue/Clayton border. So after that quick visit (where E didn't cry! I was impressed), I drove to Brentwood. Nordstrom Rack also turned out to be a bit of a bust. While I did manage to get a pair of shoes for E that she really wanted, they are more like Toms than sneakers. We tried on another pair of size 7 toddler sneakers there, but they were too big and E was vehement that she "(didn't) want it" and "it's for other kids". I guess she's in between size 6 and size 7 now, which is a huge pain in the bum because thick socks then make her other shoes feel too tight, and then she doesn't want to wear them.
After Michaels and Nordstrom Rack, we headed to the Mid-County branch of the library. This was the first library in the area that we visited, again when we lived in the area. The last time I brought E there, she was still crawling and it was before Covid-19. This library is constructed with a basement carpark, and I guess it was the first time E has really been in a basement carpark, because she was scared. This kind of blows my mind a little because growing up in SG, more than half of carparks are dark indoor/basementy things. It's the same thing with escalators and lifts for E - growing up thus far in St Louis, she is utterly unused to them (though at least these 2 I've been more aware of). We spent close to an hour in the library, with maybe 5 minutes of me being able to browse the adult section, about 10 minutes of us making paper snowflakes in the lobby at the craft table, and the rest in the kid's section where she played with the light table that had resin blocks with things like fish and leaves floating in them, the computers with kiddy programs, and a Little Tykes Farm Stand toy thingamajig. When she started throwing the soft blocks around 12:45pm, that was our cue to leave. Plus I was getting hungry.
Lunch was at Mod Pizza, across the road from E's doctor. For the first time, I ordered a pizza just for E. It was basically a plain cheese pizza with copious amounts of pineapple on it. The guy making the pizza was very charmed by E. She ended up eating mainly just the toppings (as in, plus cheese), but towards the end just picked off all the pineapple. In retrospect I wonder if I should have ordered everything she likes on a pizza, which would have been pineapple, olives, and mushrooms. Now that sounds like an awful combo to me, but those are her favourite things. Maybe ask them to add pickles on it too. We ate there because it wasn't too busy, which was nice, as I can't quite recall the last time the two of us ate out alone. It reminded me a little of how I used to always have lunch with my Mum on Saturdays, though that was when I was a lot older.
Driving home, the idea of ice cream suddenly popped into my head, so we made a detour to McDonald's. I went through the drive-thru and got a vanilla cone for us to share, and it came to $1.60+ with tax, which made me think of how it used to cost 50 cents as a special when I was in Pri/Sec school. I parked the car in the lot there, and E and I shared the ice cream. It felt like a very nice moment with just the two of us, something of course that will become very rare when number #2 comes along.
I am simultaneously looking forward to the birth of number #2, seeing how E will be with a companion, and who number #2 will develop into becoming. At the same time however, I am apprehensive at how I'll handle 2 kids, and feeling a little sad that it will no longer just be E and I on our jaunts around St Louis. Still, come late Dec, our lives will be thrown into upheaval anyway when my in-laws come to visit for Christmas and to help out with the birth of #2. In early Feb just before they leave, my Mum will fly up from SG to help out too. I am glad to see all of them, as we haven't seen either side since late 2019, but again there's that twinge of feeling nostalgic when things were just E and I together.
