Well I was away for a week and when I returned I got the most precious welcome home. It was nice to see that she did actually miss me and that it was not just Lanelle prompting her to say it over the phone when we had spoken during the week.

On Saturday we decided that we were tired of Cezanne’s art projects being done and left to dry on our kitchen table, so we hatched a plan to create an art space for her so that she could help herself and make the mess in an area not used for eating.

The plan involved a few new furniture items that we decided to pickup at IKEA. When we arrived we both remembered that they had a kids “play zone” and took a fat chance by asking Cezanne if she wanted to shop with us or go play in the kids play zone. With no hesitation she answered that she wanted to play with the kids. We both took a breath and then explained nicely that we would be leaving her there while we went shopping to which she replied that was fine and she was a big girl.

We took her to potty and checked her in and off she went, not looking back for a moment.

Lanelle and I stood there, shell shocked for a few minutes before it really sank in.

We were given an hour of freedom to show and were almost finished when we heard a page that we should return to the kids area. We did and expected to find Cezanne in tears or worse, but all she needed was to go potty and she wanted Mommy. Turns out she could not make it onto the potty and had a little accident on the floor which she says she did clean up.

After finishing what she started, we asked if she was done or if she wanted to go back and play for the rest of the hour - how dare we even think she was done yet !

We checked her back in for the remaining 15 minutes and finished our shopping…

So either shopping with us is really so terrible she would rather endure the uncertainties of a foreign kids play zone, or she has really figured it all out and knows that she is now big enough to get by without us around all the time…