i has a jacket!

a life jacket, to be exact.

last night after my extended immediate family's (is that redundant?) sometimes-weekly Thursday Night Dinner, erin accompanied me to Academy to purchase a life jacket for kitten. we're going to the lake for our annual extended immediate family lake trip in a couple of weeks. i'd looked at wal-mart and target but found nothing satisfactory. when i mentioned this to erin, she mentioned academy. i was hoping to find something without cartoon characters. unfortunately i wasn't able (EVERY SINGLE LIFE JACKET had a cartoon character), but i did find something with a relatively benign Dora The Explorer patch - and it seemed the safest design.

en route aislinn was at the End Of Her Rope, it being after her bedtime. but once we walked into Academy she brightened right up and was so proud to try on her new "jacket."

jacket?! jacket?! jackejackejacket?!

she was SO proud of it, in fact, that she wore it all the way out of the store. we set her up onto the cash register and had her scanned.

and then we got to the car and she had to take off her "jacket" and promptly melted down in the parking lot, and then fell asleep on the 7 minute ride home.

do you like my jacket? jacket?

in fact, the only thing she said more often that evening than, jacket? was ewi? ewi? ("erin? erin?"). erin is her FA-VOR-ITE person. she likes aw ewi ("aunt erin") more than she likes mama. she has picked up on the times and places where aw ewi is likely to appear. after daycare, if we go anywhere other than home, when i open the car door at the restaurant or store or mall she's asking, aw ewi? ewi?? if we go home and someone comes in the front door before jake is expected home, she chirps, ewii!!! ewii!!!! it's adorable.