Random thoughts from the mall

• The mall playground is my best (and sometimes worst) friend these days.  I'm trying to soak up the last few weeks Lucy and I will have as just the two of us during the day, and I love getting her out to play, but it's getting a little difficult for me to chase her up and down playground structures at the park.  Since she's still so little (and deceivingly mobile) she could totally fall over the side of a lot of the structures, even though she gets to the top no problem. One day she'll learn to be careful, but right now it's not there!
• It's also awesome for people watching and seeing what other mommies are up to.  If I ever get a tattoo, I think I'd get what this one chick had.  She had two Starbucks drinks tattooed on her forearm, with the date that she and her husband met below it.  How cool is that?  My tattoo would be an Iced Venti Two Sugar in the Raw Black Tea, and Andy's would be an Iced Tall Americano with April 2003 under it.
• I'll bet you didn't know it took me a good half an hour to approach said mommy and ask her about the tattoo.  I'll also bet you didn't know that I can be painfully shy so my former profession as a reporter put me way out of my comfort zone a lot.  I always complain to myself about how I wish I had more mom friends to hang out with during the day, but I'm never going to make them if I don't put myself out there!  I am ridiculously bad at making new friends, and I'm pretty sure it's because I'm super afraid of rejection and putting myself out there.  It's pretty much why all of my friends are either ones I met working at Starbucks or ones I met through Andy.  I guess I can't really complain about not having more friends since I'm such a scaredy cat.
• Mean girls start early!  I love getting Lucy together with other kids, be it play dates or at the mall playground, because it gives her a chance to interact with other kids.  I know all kids aren't always going to treat my little flower nicely, but I was very surprised when Lucy pretty much got punched in the face by another little girl!  She couldn't have been much older than Lucy.  I've noticed when little kids greet each other, they do this awkward ritual where they walk right up to the other and stare at them.  I can only imagine if that's what we continued to do as adults.  Anyway, the little girl walks right up to Lucy, does the awkward close-range stare, and then bops Lucy in the face!  Her dad pulled her away from Lucy, and Lucy sat there stunned for a second.  And then the saddest thing I have ever seen happened.  Her face crumpled up and she started crying, and ran over to me, like she'd been completely violated.  I felt so sad for her, because I know that will be the first of many times in her life where someone will hurt her feelings like that.  It was especially heartbreaking, though, because she doesn't understand what happened.  I comforted her and decided it was time to go.  The little girl's parents didn't say sorry or anything, which I realized later was kind of messed up.  I know my kid is going to get punched or kicked by other little kids, it's just kind of what they do, but an acknowledgment of what their kid did would have been a little nice.