Shopping

I have a love/hate relationship with shopping. I hate shopping when I have to argue with kids about what we will not buy. I hate shopping when I can’t find what I went to get. I hate shopping when I’m tired or grumpy. I love shopping because it gets me out of the house. I love finding the exact right thing for cheap. I love wandering through a store looking at things and talking about them with my shopping buddy.

Today Patches was my shopping buddy and we went to a local thrift store. The purpose of the trip was to find pajamas for Kiki. Patches insisted on walking and did a remarkably good job of staying right with me. He did even better once we cruised the toy aise and found him a car to drive. So I meandered along the aisles while a two and a half year old drove his car next to, in front of, and behind me. Vrrrooom noises were naturally involved.

For some inexplicable reason Kiki wants a set of sleeper pajamas with footies on them. My 10 year old wants to wear infant style pajamas to bed. She thinks they look really cozy. I didn’t find any today. I didn’t expect to. Sleeper pajamas only come in sizes that large rarely, and usually only in specialty shops where they cost $30 per pair. She’ll have to do without them. Or maybe I’ll break down, buy a pattern and make her some. Eventually. But she does need warm pajamas right now, so I selected some warm looking pajama tops and bottoms that only sort of matched. This being a thrift store there are never matches. Ever. But then as I was idly checking girl’s sportswear I found the match to the cute penguin print top I’d already selected. And I found a closer match for the other pants. So now Kiki will have two sets of matching pajamas to wear.

Kiki & Link are both due for new snowboots. They both have good pairs, but you never know when a kid will decide to suddenly grow, so I wanted to have some waiting in the next size up. I found some really good looking ones for $4 per pair. Even better, they aren’t gender specific so I can pass Kiki’s down to Link next time around. While I was in boot territory I swung by the women’s sizes. Last week I’d come to this particular store shopping for jeans for me. On a whim I’d tried on some boots. There was this one black pair that fit really comfortably and I liked, but they were $7. I virtuously left them behind. When I told Howard about them he informed me that I should have spent the money because cool-looking comfy boots are good. So I wandered back to women’s boots and they were still there. I snatched them and no longer have to regret putting them back last week.

We meandered and Vrrrooooomed to the check out. Patches had picked out a pretty cool car and it was only 50 cents so I let him bring it home. It is a pink Polly Pocket car. I briefly considered trying to get him to give it to one of his Polly Pocket loving sisters for christmas, but that way would lie many tears & conflict. Patches doesn’t care that the car is pink. He cares that it is a car and it has seats that his little hamtaro figures can sit on. Vrrroooom!

So today’s shopping trip was the kind I love. Yay!