rainbows and sunshine

last week, even though it was raining cats and dogs, the bean and i ventured down to the south bay area to meet up with nanette, baby em, and alyssa, who's very pregnant and was looking for some mommy advice. we'd been trying to get together for ages, and finally managed to pick a date and stick with it.

the plan was to cruise around babies r'us, pointing out "must-have" items and "don't waste your money" ones. and of course, we managed to squeeze in time for lunch first - at johnny rockets.

the bean, who fell asleep in the car, glared grumpily at me as i transferred her from car seat to stroller. she hadn't had a nap all day and had only been asleep for about an hour, which is only half of what she usually gets in.

on the other hand, sweet em was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, grinning happily and earning the nickname i'd given her - "droolia child."

when the food came, though, the bean perked up a bit, especially when she caught sight of the ketchup art smiling at her from her plate. i'd gone with an order of the sliders, adding bacon (of course!) and cheese. so yummy!

she was quite pleased with her mini hot dog plate and sat up to dig in. she doesn't like sauces and dressings (yet?), so she was content with simply smiling back at the ketchup as she munched.

we had a great time chatting and catching up - i'd only actually met alyssa once before, two years ago at a blogger brunch organized by the monkey. but we chat a lot via facebook and read each other's blogs, so we're pretty much up on what's happening. she's a sweetheart, and so excited to meet her baby girl. nanette and i walked her up and down the aisles of the store, giving her as much insight as possible on a ton of different things ranging from bottles to breast pump accessories to swaddling blankets. hopefully our feedback will serve to be more helpful than overwhelming.

when it finally stopped pouring, the bean and i decided to brave the freeways and head home. it was right around 4, and i was dreading the thought of sitting in traffic for the next hour or so. ugh. friday afternoon + rain + rush hour = usually a really bad time to be driving.

but i was pleasantly surprised to find that once we finally managed to get on the road, it was wide open. pretty bizarre-o, but hey, i wasn't gonna complain. and the bean was pretty excited to look out the window as we trucked along to find this:

we were home in less than an hour. sah-weet!