Shop 'Til You Drop (Or Just Can't Bear It Anymore!)

After having one baby, you realize that life will never be the same . . . at least not for a very long time. Trips to just about any place take so much longer and require much more effort.

I like to relate going places with children as such:
One child slows you down to pace comparable to having a broken arm. You can get around and do the same things you once did, but it takes a little more time, effort, and planning.

Two children leave you with a severe handicap--like an amputated leg. Your mind still works, but your body just can't seem to get places it needs to be (in our case, that's chasing Jackson before he runs out of the store . . . and then the mall!).

But three children, ahh. That's pretty much paralyzing. Which is why, under most circumstances, I try to run errands while Jayden is in school, or at the very least, bring back up to the mall (aka Dad).

Even so, shopping is still challenging. Avery is happy to go anywhere and is a pleasant companion. Jayden is fairly good as long as he gets to go to his stores (Wal-Mart or Pottery Barn Kids), and Jackson . . . well, we all know and love our Jackson.

We went to the mall the other day to go look at spring clothing and shoes. (If we can't afford to fly somewhere sunny and warm to get away from all this white stuff, at least we can pretend by looking at warm weather clothing.)

No matter what we do with Jackson's hair, it always sticks up. So, I have enjoyed the winter weather requirement of putting a hat on him. However, on this shopping trip he decided it would be fun to "hide" under all the clothing racks. Of course, this ended up knocking the clothes off of them. The salespeople shouldn't be too mad though because while he was doing so, he had taken his hat off and was dusting the floors for them. Which meant that I had the choice of him having his hair stick out like a mad man or wearing a filthy, dust-filled fleece hat for the remainder of the shopping trip. I opted for the former choice.

To make sifting through more clothing stores a bit more manageable, I told Jackson that if he behaved we could go see the pets in the pet store after. When we were in the pet store we had to greet every animal. "Hi! I'm named Jackson." When I was at the register paying for a little present for our puppy, Jackson went missing. I couldn't find him anywhere. Finally, I found him at the ferrat stand, talking to the ferrats. "Hi, I'm named Jackson. What's your name?"

In order to bribe the boys to try on some shoes (and not run out of the store with shoes on their feet!), we had to agree to take them to what Jackson calls, "Potty Barn". (As odd as it may seem, our kids LOVE Pottery Barn Kids, I think even more than how much Mom loves Pottery Barn. Dad thinks I brainwashed the boys into loving it, but honestly, it is their own free will and choice.) Once inside, the boys have a great time playing with all the toys. Jayden usually finds some cars to play with and Jackson plays with the doll houses and kitchens--he loves to set the table and "eat".

On this occassion, Jayden fell in love with something special and so neat. He even had $5 of his own money he wanted to put towards it, but it still wasn't enough. We had to pull him from the store screaming and sobbing, "I want to buy my firetruck bedding!" (Brad was pretty embarrassed, not so much about the scene, but by the fact that his boy wanted new bedding so badly.)

It seems like some of Mom's infatuations are rubbing off on the kids. :)