Adventures of Little Miss and Momma Ladots

I can’t express how much I enjoy spending time with my daughter.  She will be 16 years old on Tuesday.  She is a happy, full of life teenager who is attached to her phone.  I am grateful that she still CHOOSES to come to spend holidays and her summer vacation with me.  I don’t take that for granted for one moment.

Thanksgiving she got to hang out with her cousins and spent some quality family time with her dad’s family.  Its important to me that she has the opportunity to see her family.  We had big plans for my day off on Friday, which was my first Black Friday off in probably ten years.

Let’s step back a moment to Wednesday when I learned that I would be selected as a Juror in a trial that would potentially last for eight days, the thought of taking Friday off was a bit overwhelming.  So while my daughter was snoozing away at her uncles, I decided I needed to go into work for a bit to get some things situated before potentially spending an entire week away from work.

I got up, got dressed and hurried out the door with zero intention of seeing the apartment again until we had a full day of shopping and activities.

I stayed true to my word to my boss and only stayed at work until around 10 am, then off to pick up Little Miss.  First stop was Starbucks.  3/3  and I watched in amazement as one gentleman was so anxious to get his caffeine fix that he went off the road to park.

We had probably the funniest conversation with the two Baristas at Starbucks in regards to the fact that we were heading to Ross Park Mall ON PURPOSE.   Let the shopping adventure begin, traffic on McKnight Road didn’t disappoint; it was ever present in its true parking lot form.  Enough so that I was able to wave to my employees at our store as we sat outside waiting to turn.

There were gestures, gnashing of teeth, yelling, laying on of horns and that was all finding a parking space!

The mall was packed, but that was the least of the struggles for a woman who has anxiety around large groups of people.  The next obstacle.   Little Miss’s aversion to shopping.  I adore my daughter, she is every bit a girl who is most comfortable in Jeans and Hoodies.  To which I have no issue with on a regular basis, but as she gets older, she is learning that adults need to look like an adult for certain occasions.  3/3 shopping could be easily compared to bathing a cat.  While she browsed on her phone on Pinterest for a look she liked for her Birthday Outfit, I was amazed at the length of the lines.  What a crazy day Black Friday can be!  Surprisingly though, everyone was in good spirits, seemed to be enjoying the hustle and bustle. I remained calm while she did her thing.

I’m not 6′ Tall! Selfies were a given while waiting on Lil Miss to pick something OTHER than a hoodie…

We made our rounds to all the trendy stores, Hats off to Arie, they had a line out the door of tweens and moms waiting to get in!

We did finally find her two dresses.  Yes, you read that correctly, dresses.  I could hardly believe it myself.

So as the adventure ended in the mall (I didn’t even mention the line to the bathroom that was ridiculous and the number of zombies walking around zoned in on their phone oblivious to the people WALKING in front of them.

We had our fun, but we were ready to get out of Dodge, we found the exit and headed back to the gauntlet of cars.  Our spot was a prime real estate spot, and there was a duel happening as I viewed it in the rearview.

After all the shopping around the general public, a standard operating procedure for me is Hand Sanitizer!  Little did I know, that little action would result in my daughter somehow getting it into her eyes, which despite my futile attempt to be a caring mother, I seriously laughed my ass off.  Why? This child has a horrible knack of spraying herself in the eye with perfume, hand sanitizer or any other substance that isn’t intended for the eyes.  The unfortunate thing, she was all teary-eyed for quite a while, but we honestly had a great laugh.

We laughed the entire ride to our next shopping destination — the Strip District.  3/3 was on a quest to buy her best friend a Christmas Gift.  First stop, food.  I have the fortunate privilege to know the owner of Iron Born Pizza in Smallman Galley.  If you’ve not heard of the Chef Incubator Kitchen, Smallman Galley or its sister, Federal Galley, you are living under a rock.  You have to check it out.

Chef Pete Tomlin indeed has created a unique hand forged pizza experience with his Deep Dish Pizza masterpieces.  My absolute standard favorite pizza is the White Pizza; Little Miss opted for the Haiwaian. Both were on point!  Iron Born’s second location opened this week in Millvale.   https://www.ironbornpizza.com/

The day continued with another stop at Southhills village, a movie and finally the last stop of the night before heading home was picking up Little Miss’ Birthday Surprise Treat.

We got to the garage and were getting situated to trek across the street to the apartment.  When it became apparent, my apartment keys were MIA I was beside myself.  I don’t have a spare set of keys, and I wasn’t sure what is supposed to happen, I mean I can’t be the only person who has done that!  I was pissed off at myself, mainly because it wasn’t fair to 3/3 to have to deal with that situation.  We sat there, for a LONG time.  1/3 called to check on us, offering us to sleep at his apartment, but at that point, we were already committed on waiting!

I’ll fast forward…an hour after realizing my keys were missing, we were at least IN the building.  Thanks to the advice of a terrific friend of mine, we made the best of the situation.   We had a picnic in the hallway, at least we were warm, had cell phone chargers and food.  Chalk it up to another adventure of Little Miss and Momma Ladots.

I felt so bad that we were camped in the hallway for two hours, I let her open her cookies.  She loved them!  We played a few games on our cell phones and chatted with friends while we waited for Maintenance.  Thankfully my keys were hanging in their designated spot; I must have left in such a hurry that I didn’t grab them.  I was asked by multiple people why my car keys weren’t with my apartment keys.  I don’t have an answer for you, other than I hate carrying so many keys together on my keyring when in the ignition of my car.  Plus I always appreciate the obvious unsolicited advice after the fact.  (Said no one ever)

Thank you so much to Kristin’s Kookies for making the perfect custom cookies!  Check out her website!   http://www.facebook.com/kristinskookies

At the end of the evening, we were both exhausted and ready for bed.  I woke up early thinking about her and her laugh, her tears, her aversion to shopping and it makes my heart full that I have such a fantastic daughter.

Today we celebrate our Thanksgiving with my mom’s family and 3/3rds 16th Birthday.  No matter where she goes in life, these moments I will cherish wholeheartedly.  She is resting peacefully on the couch while I’m doing her laundry and enjoying these last two days together.  She leaves Monday morning.

Happy Saturday Everyone!  Cherish your loved ones!