my happy place

I'm going to start a little series of posts about my favorite places. To kick it off, I'll start with The Galleria in Edina. Yes, it's a shopping mall, but it's a classy awesome mall with really cool stores. The Galleria became one of my happy places back in 2005 or 2006. I was working a job I hated and, on my one-hour lunch breaks, I would often go there to walk around and browse through the shops. The mall is very long, and so you see lots of people walking for exercise or strolling their babies around.

My favorite stores include Ampersand, Gabberts, Arafina, and Epitome. I also love checking out Crate & Barrel, (which was one of the places we registered for our wedding); Pottery Barn Kids, Oh Baby, and Papyrus. There is always the wonderful browsing standby, Barnes and Noble. Local moms of babies: there is also a great nursing moms room complete with a comfortable glider that I took advantage of when Stella was a couple months old.

Today Stella and I really needed a fun outing, so I stowed the stroller into the trunk, packed Stella up, and we headed south to Edina. Stella was saying "I go BIG MALL" on the way because she thought we were headed to the Mall of America. She, Brett, and I went there a couple weeks ago, and it left quite the impression on her.

Propped up on her elbow people-watching

Mom met up with us too, which made it all the more merry. Stella's second birthday is next Saturday, and Mom wanted ideas for birthday presents. While we waited for Mom to arrive, we hung out in the children's section of Barnes and Noble. Stella enjoyed pulling books out and looking at them. When Mom arrived, we walked around in Creative Kidstuff and Pottery Barn Kids to observe what Stella liked. As soon as we walked into Creative Kidstuff, Stella gravitated toward a Melissa & Doug shopping cart (unfortunately priced at $70 - boo!) that had a doll sitting in it. She strolled around the store, tending to the baby doll every so often, and then eventually putting toys into the cart. She had difficulty maneuvering one of the corners, and the cart tipped over: baby doll, toys, puppets, and all!

Our next stop was Pottery Barn Kids. Once she spotted a little pink jogging stroller and a doll to put in it, she entered her own little world for at least twenty minutes. Every now and then I would hear little snippets of her talking to the doll about "stroller ride" or what they were going to do next. Then she started a little routine of taking the doll out of the stroller and placing her on a bean bag to rest. After ten seconds, she would pick it back up and put it in the stroller, push the stroller, and then repeat. I loved witnessing her little nurturing spirit. It was so hard to pull her away when it was time to go. Recently when she doesn't want to obey, she runs over to me or whoever is taking care of her, and wraps her arms tightly around my neck, burrows her little head into my shoulder, and fights the tears. It's as if she's saying: "This is really hard for me, and I just need to be hugged to get through this."

We rounded out the visit to the mall with lunch at Good Earth. When we sat down, she said, "Stella tired." No kidding-she had been playing so busily all morning. As soon as the hostess gave Stella crayons and the kids' menu to color, she bent her head over the paper and went to work coloring.  She was very pleased when the server brought her a cup of water with a straw in it. She feels very grownup whenever presented with a straw, and she often likes drinking out of a big-girl cup rather than a cup with a cover. Lately she also doesn't like when someone tries to assist her in doing something. She says she wants to do it "a-self" (myself) or "Stella do it!" in an irritated tone. We're trying to get her to alter her tone more nicely, and to instead say, "No thank you." So much teaching and modeling behavior going on these days. :)

Do you have a happy place you visit when you need to recharge or browse?