Shop 'til we drop!

Who'd have thought that someone so little could know how to shop so well? I certainly never expected it, not when she has me for a mother, but Rachel really knows her stuff.

When we lived in Utah, I think we took her to the mall 4 or 5 times her entire life during Andrew's watch saga. Here we go grocery shopping a lot, but that's about it. We've been to Maadi Grand Mall a few times and City Stars once, but not really to shop. I just hate the process of shopping.

I'm so indecisive and hesitant about everything that I buy.

Rachel is not.

We had a pretty laid back day today. We had been planning to visit Coptic Cairo, but Rachel hadn't slept well last night and was grumpy. Because she hadn't slept well I hadn't slept well and, frankly, I was a little grumpy, too. Karen hadn't slept well because the foam mattress she's sleeping on has a little too much memory and not enough foam so she was basically sleeping on wooden slats.

After trying, and failing due to a temper tantrum, to go to Coptic Cairo in spite of our exhaustion, we turned around to come back home for a nap. Karen and I pulled the mattress off of the bed in Rachel's room and stacked it under the one in her room. Then we all went down for an afternoon siesta.

Andrew called around 3:00 to say that he'd be home early and we were just waking up then.

So we decided to go out for dinner at Lucille's, famous for its "world's best" hamburgers, and then Karen, Rachel and I would hang around Road 9 to shop while Andrew went to his tutoring job.

On our way to Lucille's

It was hard for Rachel to look without touching until Karen spotted a cute pair of pyjamas that looked like they'd fit Rachel. We decided that we'd get her a pair. She knew they were for her, of course, and got really excited and demanding; shouting at the storekeeper and pointing at the pyjamas while he wrapped them up for her. He knew who to hand the bag to when he was finished: Rachel.

She stuck her hand out and graciously took the bag and carried it around the rest of the time we were shopping. She pulled Grandma and I along, so that we could see what she wanted to look at and go where she wanted to go. She looked at bracelets and toy camels and everything else imaginable, always hoping that we would buy her something else and always upset that we never did.

Hot deal over here, Grandma!

Our last stop was a little silver shop by the flyover. Rachel had fun playing with one of the storekeepers while Karen and I looked at some jewlery. After we'd made our final purchase, the chashier threw some keychains into the deal.

"Here, Rachel," I said, hoping that she'd think the little camel keychain was cool enough to ignore the stuffed camels until we could get out of here, "This is for you!"

Rachel whipped her hand up, grabbed the keychain, and stuffed it in her bag with her pyjamas. Then she sauntered happily out of the store on her very first shopper's high.

She was only too happy to walk home carrying her little package the whole way so that she could model her pyjamas for Daddy.

There's a camel on my jammies!

And one here...

...and one here!

Modeling pyjamas was a great little segue into B-E-D, and although she screamed about it, she was really quite exhausted from all her shopping!