This weekend was not quite as busy as last weekend, but the girls had a good time and did some fun things nonetheless. Siena went to the mall with Mama yesterday to buy new sneakers (which she just love), and while there she got to ride on a big merry-go-round. As she later told Mo, her horse went up and down and round and round and was name Mia. I took Thalia to Target to get some supplies, and we also had a good if less interesting time. (See, there’s the Target trip.)

Today Mama had a continuing education course on dental something-or-other. Due to inclement weather–buckets of rain–we stayed home all day. During Thalia’s two naps I vacuumed water out of our basement and read to Siena. Daylight savings started today, so Siena got up at the delightfully late time of 6:45 AM, but she didn’t go to bed until almost 9 PM. We actually got Siena reasonably well adjusted, she had lunch at 11:45 instead of an hour later, and we had dinner right around 6:30, which is our normal time. (Thalia is less easy to manipulate in terms of timing, so she will take a little longer to adjust.)

Ah, dinner. We went out to Firefly’s tonight. We were low on our home supply of the Dixie Kiss sauce, which always makes for a good excuse to go get some of the best BBQ in the Metrowest. Thalia had not napped much during the day, so she fell asleep in the car on the way there.

Siena asked for her own drink, a “Strawberry Breeze.” This is actually the name of the drink the had last weekend at Ruby Tuesday’s. Apparently it was so tasty it left quite the impression on her! We ordered instead a strawberry lemonade, which arrived in a massive mason jar. All three of us took turns drinking from it; had Siena drunk all that on her own she’d be up all night. And even though it wasn’t technically the Strawberry Breeze, it was still a success with Siena. Thalia woke up, so Mama fed her while Siena and I walked around, waiting for our food to arrive.

The next success came with the hush puppies. We had not tried this appetizer before, but it sounded good. Each deep-fried ball of bliss did have some onions and jalapenos, so I got Siena some baby corn from the condiment bar. However, the pups were mild enough and Siena was interested enough that we gave her some. She loved them! Success number two. She even liked the outside parts the best, and I later explained to her that the outside parts were the “toasty bits” (which she normally hates on anything), and she said, “The toasty bits were good!”

Dinner for Mama and Siena was pulled chicken with honey-glazed carrots and sweet potato fries (two new sides and both rated delicious). Siena ate mostly cornbread, carrots, and fries. I had ribs and pulled pork along with mashed potatoes and the yummy sweet-potato pecan pudding, all also very tasty. Though she ended up not liking it, Siena even tried one of the ribs.

Thalia never really blew up, though Mama and I did have to stagger our eating windows in order to walk her around a bit. It’s worth noting that walking around a 6-8 month old baby with a full head of hair sure does make you popular with the wait staff of restaurants, and the hair provides a natural subject of discussion to mitigate any awkwardness of talking with totally random strangers.

Back home, to bath, and finally, bed. And another vacuum session in the basement.