A trip to the mall

Since we've been going through this bout of "if it's Monday, it must be raining," and because Alison loves to go outside and run around, I was looking for something to do this morning where she could run around but not be out in the wet, muddy grass and the cold temps that come after that Monday rain. So we headed to the mall.

Since my goal was to let her burn off some energy (and hopefull take a good nap this afternoon), I did not even get the stroller out of the trunk. I carried her into the mall and put her down as soon as we got through the doors. She very nicely held my hand and off we went. The only problem is that she walks really weird whenever she's holding someone's hand, almost like she's trying to take steps as big as ours or something. So we switch to plan B. She climbs up on a bench and I whip out her harness. Now we're really good to go.

I followed her lead, for the most part. We checked out some of the murals they have on display in an old jewelery store. Then we went into the video store. About halfway back they have a bunch of stuffed toys. Of course we had to check them out. The ones that captured her interest were Donkey from Shrek. Before we could head back out of the store she had to "be nice" to both of them. In Alison-speak, that means she had to pet them.

Our next stop was the Hallmark store. I didn't let us get too far in there because there's way too much breakable stuff at toddler level in Hallmark stores. She did have to "be nice" to the ceramic dog in the doorway. A graduation display in the window caught her attention so we had to check out the owl and the little bear. Before we were able to move on she kissed the window, her attempt as kissing the owl.

From Hallmark we went in and out and in and out and in and out of the shoe store. Then we ended up in a jewelry store. She tried her hardest to get behind the counter there, but I grabbed her just in time. When she started trying to climb into the chairs in front of the displays, I gently guided her out of the store.

I figured that, as long as we were there and had the time, we could go to the bookstore. Getting there was easier said than done. It took me two tries to get her out of a store that had a mannequin sitting in the window. We had to check out another mannequin and some t-shirts at Steve and Barry's. Getting her out of the instant picture machine was quite the challenge, too. We finally get to Barnes and Noble and she gets in two feet and turns around to head back out. Figures....the store I want to go in, she doesn't. Oh well, I persisted. I ended up carrying her back to the kids books because it was easier that way. We picked up 3 books (Madeline, Curious George, and Are You My Mother?) and then headed up to the check-out. To get her going in the right direction, I had Alison carry one of her books. Things were good until we got the the check-out and had to wait. Alison was all over the place. She'd manage to stand and hold my hand for about two seconds and then she was ready to go again. Were it not for her harness/leash, she'd have been out the door and on her way down the mall with heaven know how much unpaid merchadise. She is so much like her father was at that age.

From Barnes and Noble we had 10 minutes to get back to Target, pick up the cereal that was our real reason for being at the mall in the first place, and head for home. Of course Alison didn't want to cooperate at this point. She had to look at everything in every window. I finally had to pick her up and carry her. That didn't go over so well. So she got another chance to walk. That lasted about 2 seconds. I picked her up and hauled her into Target and plopped her into a cart, kicking myself for not having gone to Target when we first got there.

We were in and out of Target in 5 minutes, then on our way home to meet daddy for lunch. Alison is now sleeping peacefully (I hope). The sun is shining, the temperature is climbing and the backyard should be fit for play by the time we get done with supper tonight. And I think it will be a while before we try another one of these mall excursions. :)