God Bless Baby Dominic. May 7, 2011

Mother's Day weekend was scheduled for my husband and I to travel on down to visit Olivia. We got all of our things together and headed out on Friday after I finished up with work. We had originally planned for me to take her clothes shopping the weekend of the 14th for a new set of clothes to wear since she was growing out of most of what she had, but since my amazing Statistics professor scheduled our final exam on that day, we bumped it up to Saturday. I was especially excited for this weekend to come because we'd been informed of a church picnic at the church we attend while we're visiting. Last year, we attended the picnic and the most amazing gumbo I'd ever had was served; I was really looking forward to quite a few bowl fulls of this dish. I was a bit nervous for the weekend too, though, because I'd never taken an 8 year old girl clothes shopping before. I wasn't sure how she'd hold up; did she get enough sleep? What if she doesn't feel like trying things on? What if she is uninterested? I wasn't worried about having fun; I was just hoping she was going to be OK with the few hours we'd have to spend doing all of this. Kids get bored fast!

Hubs and I talked it over for a while, and we decided to introduce the idea of it being like "Jo Jo's fashion show", a video game that Olivia loves to play where you pick out outfits based on the category, and you get judged on how stylish it is. So, I pitched that idea to her in the car; it wasn't a huge hit, but it made her smile. So, I decided to try another route. Growing up, my mom gave us a once a year clothing budget and we got to pick out the clothes we wanted to wear. We had to be frugal if we wanted to get a lot, but she always let us choose what we wanted. So, I thought to tell Olivia the same thing. I told her that this was a trip about what she liked; that she should pick out the clothes she liked off the racks; to be mindful of what the price tag said; and to go nuts!! I told her to pick out as much as she liked and that we'd bring it all into the fitting room and she could try it all on and we'd pick the ones we liked the best. I've never seen her happier in a clothes store! She was picking out clothes left and right and was laughing and giggling at just how much we were getting. "Is this too much to try on?" Nope. :)  So, all in all, she had an absolute blast and everything she got was something she chose. We'll make this our yearly step-mom / daughter trip, special for Olivia and I.

We left the clothing store and had a few more places to drop by. It was about 15 to four, and the picnic was at 4. I said, "OK, we're going to head to the church now. I'm starving!" She says to me, "Shouldn't we wait until it's closer to 4 so we don't get there early?"  What? Why would we wait?? I told her no, and we headed down to the church. No one was there! There were a few cars, and I saw smoke coming from the grill, so at least for that part of things. I wondered if we were too early or if the picnic had been canceled. My husband came walking out of the church because we had some issues thinking someone had stolen my identity and opened a credit card, so we sat in the car a few minutes and finished that up. We headed inside and I was excited to smell burgers and hot dogs searing on the grill. Mmmm MMM! Seemed like everything was still on track, so we headed inside.

SURPRISE! This was no church picnic; it was a baby shower for our son! No wonder there weren't many cars in the parking lot for a church-wide picnic! It was a BABY shower! Thanks to Olivia's mom and some wonderful members of the church, they'd put together such a beautiful celebration for our little boy with homemade food across the board, games, gifts and friends and family. It was a wonderful time and surprise after such a great day with Olivia. She's so good at keeping secrets. I'm so overjoyed at the amount of love everyone has been showing for Dominic. I can't wait until they can see the smile on his face!