A Little Shop 'Til We Drop?

                    

Yesterday, it was time to drag our behinds out of the house for a while.  For the entire week, we'd stayed inside because we didn't want to be out in the miserable weather.  Being that we got another snow day, yesterday, but the weather was MUCH nicer than it had been all week so we took that opportunity to get out.  

We were in desperate need of a Sam's run.  We'd been buying little things here and there for our meals and stuff, but I really wanted to get to Sam's and stock up on all that stuff that you have to buy in bulk when you have three kids that go through stuff like it's going out of style.  You know, toilet paper, laundry detergent, FOOD.  

After we made our Sam's run, we weren't ready to go home, so we decided to do a little moseying around at the different shopping centers.  I had a Kohl's gift card that I got for Christmas that was burning a hole in my pocket... so we headed over there.

Now, what I didn't find out until yesterday was that my six year old daughter is a shopping DIVA!  I've taken that girl shopping with me thousands of times in the course of her six years on the planet, yet she's never really been all that interested.  She ends up getting cranky or bored.  But yesterday?  After being in the house all week?  Yeah, she acted like someone had put a batch of fire ants in her pants... and started tearing around the store hunting for some bargains.  She looked through clothing racks, she pulled stuff off to hold it up against herself to see if it would fit, she asked Hubby and my opinion on things she was pulling off.  It was very amusing to watch.  It was like shopping with a teenager!

Then, she came across the coat that you see in the picture. A white fur coat (fake, of course).  The minute she saw it, the look on her face was priceless.  It was like she had finally found "the one", the holy grail of her shopping trip.  She sucked the air in and gasped like I'd never heard before, and swiped that sucker off the hanger as if someone was about to steal it from her fingers.  

She then held it like it was a stuffed animal.  Hugging it, rubbing it on her cheeks, petting it.  And then she asked if she could try it on. Hubby and I, enjoying the entertainment as it was playing out before us, helped her get in to the coat...and then there was another gasp.  She stood in front of the mirror and admired the coat, and the way it looked on her. 

Now, let me share a little something about my Jelly.  The girl is EXTREMELY picky when it comes to clothes.  I am convinced that she has some kind of sensory issue with certain fabrics.  She HATES wearing jeans, khakis, and socks.  HATES it.  Because they make her feel "itchy".  She would (and does most of the time) live in leggings, and dresses, and sweats for the rest of her life and be perfectly content.  And they have to be leggings.  Don't try and give her any tights...that's just asking for trouble. She'll spend the entire time pulling on them, whining about how tight they are, scratching herself, and complaining that they make her legs feel funny.  The girl owns more jeans than everyone in this house COMBINED, yet it's a fight any time I want her to wear a pair.  Sometimes I win, sometimes I lose.  

But, here she is, covered in what can only be described as a coat that's supposed to mimic a polar bear, and the girl acts like she's in pure heaven.  But, then again, I shouldn't be that surprised.  The girl absolutely ADORES her stuffed animals.  They are really the only toys she plays with. She sleeps with them, and is constantly carrying one around, so she's probably quite used to the feeling of fake fur on her face and arms.

She then turned to Hubby and I, with those big blue eyes, and said "Can I have it, Mommy?  Can I?  Please?  I'll pay for it with all my money."

And my heart melted.  I've NEVER seen the girl act that way about anything.  Clothes, toys, ANY-THING.  How could I say no?  

Something happened to her once I agreed to buy the coat for her... which thank all things holy was 80% off marked down from ONE HUNDRED freakin' DOLLARS!!  Whew, dodged a bullet with that....she turned FIERCE. Like diva-fierce.  

And that's when I captured the pictures shown up top.  The first one was when we were walking out of the store.  There was no way her precious coat was going in a bag, she was wearing it!  Then we got in the car, and she made that "I am so amazingly cool, but I'll eat your face off it you cross me" face.  I think she was channeling the inner polar-bear that the coat was feeding in to her.

After our Kohl's trip, we went to a few other stores.  And as she walked around, you could see the attitude pouring out of her.  Not a bad attitude, a proud, everyone look at me, attitude.  Diva.  Of the full-scale variety.  We went in to Ross, and she saw a fuzzy robe....she's been wanting one of those since Christmas.  Thankfully, the one she wanted had been marked down from $20 to $12... gotta love after Christmas sales!  She told me she loved it, but I didn't have to buy it because the coat was enough.  

WHO IS THIS CHILD AND WHERE DID SHE COME FROM?

I've never heard her tell me that I don't have to buy her something.  HA!!  I did buy it for her.  Just because she had been so good all week long, while off school, and because of how gracious she had been in telling me that buying her the coat had been more than enough.  

After Ross, we did some more running around and then made our way to my car dealership to get the oil changed in my car.  By this time, we'd been out for about four hours.  She sat in that car dealership for almost an hour, as good as gold.  Didn't whine that she was bored.  Didn't ask a single time how much longer it was going to be.  Didn't run all over the place like a crazy kid.  She just sat, walked around the little waiting area, and talked.  To me.  About anything and everything.  

It was nice.  No...more than nice.  Amazing.  Having actual conversation with my six year old daughter.

When we were all done, we had one last stop to make and that was to Walmart to pick up all the stuff we don't have to buy in bulk from Sam's.  And that leads us to the last pictures up top.  Once we got in the store, she asked if she could ride in the cart... something that doesn't happen very often.  And, she just laid down and went to sleep.  Wiped out.  She had officially shopped till she dropped.  

She was awoken by a loud rumbling that happened a while in to our shopping... Thunder.  Really loud thunder.  Shake the entire store thunder.  And, that followed by the sound of hard, loud rain.

That poor six year old looked at me with utter panic in her eyes.  Not from the thunder.  Not from the rain.  But because she realized that she may have to take her precious coat outside in the pouring rain, and we had explained earlier in the day that it wasn't the type of coat she could wear in the rain.

We were just finishing up when that loud rain started, so when we saw the rain pouring down outside.. we weren't thrilled about having to go out in it. Hubby, being the chivalrous guy he is, offered to go get the car and pull up in front for us.  But, that didn't appease Jelly any.  She ripped her coat off and asked the checker for a sack to put her coat in.  She wanted it tied up so that her coat wouldn't get wet.  She was fine getting soaked, herself, but no harm was to come to her coat!  And when another checker offered to give her a bigger bag to wrap around herself, she put the bag with her coat in it inside the bigger bag.. extra protection.  Which gave the checkers and myself a good little chuckle.  I've never seen any six year old so concerned about an item of clothing.  

Hubby pulled up, and even brought in Jelly's other coat (her winter coat she had when we left that morning) to put on so she wouldn't get too wet.  We all ran to get in to the car... and wouldn't you know it, it stopped about 30 seconds after we got in the car.  

It was close to 7PM by the time we got home.  Jelly, who I thought would have fallen asleep in the car, talked non-stop all the way home.  When we got home, she was focused on getting her dinner and telling her sister (who had opted to stay home instead of going shopping with us) all about her day and her new coat and the new robe and the purple elephant she'd picked out to give to Peanut.  

Hubby and I decided, in the spur of the moment, that we were going out to eat dinner.  We forget about Peanut being old enough to babysit.  Butter had gone to my mom's for the weekend earlier that morning... and so we just got back in the car and went and had a quiet meal together.

It felt good to sit down in a restaurant, that didn't involve placing our order up at the counter first.  We chatted about the kids, and stuff in general.  Stuff I assume couples who have been together so long chat about over a quiet, kid-free, dinner.  

By the time we got home, Jelly was sound asleep.  Not surprising.  We had picked Peanut up something to thank her for babysitting... and then, I was heading my behind to bed.  

It had been a long day.  With only sleeping a couple of hours the night before, and getting up at the butt crack of dawn to get ready for work, and then finding out I didn't have to go to work, and all the shopping had taken the wind out of me.  I was ready to go to bed, at 10:30PM.  The earliest I'd gone to bed in WEEKS!!

I was up nice and early this morning.  Better get myself back in to work-mode now.  

But, today, now that all of our shopping is done, I'm going to relax and work on a new crocheting project.  And clean.  And do some laundry.  

Have an awesome Saturday, everyone!!