So every now and then at the Spead house, we all sleep in too late and Caroline misses daycare breakfast, which is served promptly at 9 am. I don’t mind! Hey, I will take a toddler who wakes up at 8:30 any day over one who wakes up at 6:30. I am NOT a morning person so this is fine by me. Not to mention Vivi has just started sleeping though the night, but not consistently, so there are nights I am still up nursing, which means I usually sleep later. Anyway, ever since Vivi Kate arrived and this missing breakfast scenario happens, I sneak out sometimes with my firstborn for a little Mommy-Caroline breakfast date. It’s verrrry fancy, I’ll tell you that! Now that Mike is back at work, sometimes even Vivi comes along for the ride.

First we get all dressed up.

For Caroline, this means TWO bows (one is always orange), her favorite whale shirt, boots like Mommy and a scarf like Mommy (only this ‘scarf’ is actually a bib for Vivi–but hey, no worries!)

She is so proud of her getup.

Then you load up in the car and drive to the grocery store that’s right next to daycare. You walk through the produce section and grab a beautiful yellow banana and hand it to your trusty sidekick. She will proudly hold it close to the vest as you walk through the store. Then you make your way to the hot bar and load up a plate with scrambled eggs and TWO tater tots. (Two is your sidekick’s favorite number which also just so happens to be the perfect number of tater tots).

You check out, convincing your sidekick that she will in fact receive her banana back after you pay for it. Your meal will be approximately 98 cents. You can’t even buy a pack of gum for that!

Then you settle in for your feast at the little tables in the front of the store.

Enjoying the cinnamon roll that Mommy gave you since the tater tots were all gone 🙂

You talk about school and life and the teachers and friends she will see at daycare that day. Your sidekick will name  each of them one by one and you smile because they are her world and she wants to share it with you.

You practice good manners and using your fork.

Well…sometimes we skip the fork 🙂 But we always say please and thank you!

Once we’re all done, we even pick up the crumbs that we inevitably drop on the floor. Because you can never start too early with good baby manners!

Vivi waves goodbye to the Harris Teeter staff as we load up again and head upstairs for the daycare day to begin.

Bellies and hearts full!