Emma in the Big City

Yesterday we drove downtown to have lunch with Janet. (Janet was my boss when I worked in Cleveland as a social worker. Pre-baby days when I still had my LSW. One of the (many, of course, Janet) things I love about her is that no matter how long it has between us talking, we always pick right up where we left off. It's like I'm sitting in her office chatting and laughing and making jokes rather than working all over again.) This was the view when we got downtown, same view I saw everyday when I drove to work. Seeing it though Emma's eyes though, was hysterical.

"Mom! Look at the big city! It's beautiful!" Yep, gorgeous. And as we continued driving, "Mom, I like the work city."


We met up with Janet and walked to the Winking Lizard for lunch (Memo to Janet and myself, do not go to the Winking Lizard at lunchtime again unless we want to wait forever and get only lukewarm food.) Emma had a great time, like maybe the highlight of the day good time, walking downtown. She loved every minute of it. Here she is with Janet, although I couldn't get her to look at me because she was too busy watching all the cars. She was saying cheese, though!


After lunch we went back to the non-profit I used to work for because Emma wanted to "go to Janet's work." Janet put her up in the window so she could see "the big city" again and when Emma got up there she was so excited! "Mom! Look! It's sooo busy!" That's when Janet turned to me and mouthed "No. It's dead out there." And it was. There was like one car on Euclid Ave.

Emma got to see my old cubicle (not really impressed) and darted in all the offices and chatted with everyone I used to work with. And of course, she was sad when we had to leave. As we were walking to the car she said, so very seriously, "Mom, I'm so sad. I really miss Janet. I wish Janet didn't have to stay at work."

But the doll house sitting in the front seat of our car cheered her up. Janet's girls had outgrown their doll house and moved on to the Barbie Dream House, so Emma and Mackenzie now have this:


Emma is loving it. As she told Michael last night, "We went to see my friend Janet. Janet gave me this doll house." And on and on and on. She's played with it all day today. In fact, she wouldn't even eat breakfast this morning because she didn't want to miss play time with the doll house, that's how much she loves it. Thank you, Janet!