Milling Around The Mall

Going to the mall with 3 kids is quite an experience. If you have never had this experience you don’t know what you are missing.

We are on a mission to find a special pin to hold the sash in place for Lulu’s first communion dress. What an adventure! The pin is secured quite readily but now there is a bit of time to kill before lunch so we go on a walk-about. Ohhh...there is a kid’s clothing store (Gymboree)-let’s go there. Lucy (the clothes horse) thinks she has dropped into hog heaven. She is holding stuff up and looking at herself reflected in the window. Lulu is old enough now to "browse". She studies each and every item carefully. She looks, moves on...looks...moves on.I don’t think she will ever be an impulse buyer. And...then....there is SweetCheeks. Oh Lord! She has discovered that she can reach everything on the lower rack...and she does. She is moving it from one rack to the next. What are you doing we want to know? "Hey! Dis iss da boys stuff and dis iss nexta the guhls stuff and I gonna mobe it ober heah cuz I doan wanna haf it touch the tutus."

Meanwhile, the two headed store clerk is looking like she is ready to activate her manager status and employ it to chop off SweetCheeks arms. "Come along," we tell her. "Let’s look over here". As we are talking we are re-arranging the newly re-arranged items and putting them back in their rightful places. SweetCheeks doesn’t miss a thing. "Hey! I sayed theys all mixad up and now yoah got dem all mixad up even moah!" We tell her not to worry the sales lady will fix it. I cast my eyes over just in time to see Ms. Manager getting up off her knees where she has apparently been in a praying position. Hmmmm...wonder what that’s all about.

As we move out of the store we are lucky enough to encounter a Sweet Seat holding an Easter Bunny. Remember when your 2 year old was scared of the Easter Bunny & Santa Claus and any big "animal, person, thing" they saw costumed in the mall? Remember that? Well, it doesn’t happen here. The SweetCheeks goes flying into big ole rabbit arms and leaves her sticky imprints all over him. We think the Bunny is a good sport (although we can’t see behind that frozen face). He give SweetCheeks and company rabbit ears and we leave the mall.

As we are backing out of the parking lot, we see Mr. Rabbit himself walking across the asphalt. "Look!", we cry. "There’s the Easter Bunny". Nonchalantly, and with great wisdom, SweetCheeks tell us, "Hims out heah so hims can go potty...cuz if he peed and pooped in thuh mall no buddy wuld sit on hims lap!" How right she is!