Mall rat.

Yesterday after finishing up work early, hubby and I took babygirl to the Emerald Sqare Mall. I needed to do a little spring-wardrobe updating, and, more importantly, Emerald Square has a really nice indoor playspace with fun play equipment, a nice enclosure wall, and a carpeted, bouncy floor. (No dirt to eat!) Ever since Holy Terror, Hyperactive Boy, and L'il Cherub Baby moved out, I've been concerned about babygirl not getting enough interchild interaction and falling behind in her social development. Well, I'm happy to report that she's doing just fine. There were loads of other kids for her to play with, ages 11 months on up to probably 8 years, and she LOVED it. Within minutes she was running around the place and up and down the play equipment, playing with half a dozen kids at once, shrieking with joy. There were three brothers there, probably ages 3, 5 and 7, all competing for her favors. The 5-year-old discovered if he lay down on the floor near her, she'd walk over, lay down and hug him and give him kisses. I should probably be alarmed that she's already into, and attracting, the older men, but it just seemed really cute at the time. There were tons of moms, and even a couple of dads, there with their kids - I think it's pretty common to bring kids there even without shopping just to give them something to do and blow off steam.

We went shopping too - I got a cute work outfit at my current favorite JC Penney, and we picked out some clearance stuff for babygirl at Children's Place. Then a Peekaboo Kisses book at Borders and a copy of the new Harry Potter DVD plus a giant M&M's cookie at Starbucks so I could use their restroom key. Babygirl had a blast walking hand in hand with Daddy all around the mall. She took a detour into one of those open corner-spot mall jewelry stores, attracted no doubt by all the sparkly shiny things, and made a beeline for the cabinet with all the big diamond engagement rings in it. Good taste she has! And so the fascination with jewelry passes to the next generation...

Babygirl was absolutely exhausted by the time we left. She passed out in her carseat before we even made it out of the parking lot and wound up taking a one-hour nap. All in all, we had a great time as a family. I've never been a big fan of the malls, but then I never needed to know what child-friendly places they are. Looks like we'll be going to Emerald Square a lot more often.