This weekend is the first weekend in a really, long time that we have not had plans…. so, like any good planner would do, I made plans.
Now, normally, if I made plans when we finally had the chance to relax and unwind, my husband might scowl at me. But, these plans revolved around Kiera and fun so he was all in.
We decided to make a trip to Abilene to visit the zoo. Kiera was overjoyed at the plan. She loves the zoo and the thought of seeing the new baby giraffe made the plan even better.
After a late breakfast, we loaded up and headed out.Unbeknownst to Kiera, Aaron and I had made a couple of adjustments to the schedule. O.k… I made adjustments to the schedule. I needed to buy Kiera some new jeans and then we decided we would eat lunch before going to the zoo.
As we pulled into town, we relayed the new plan to Kiera.She was fine with the revisions, a little antsy, but overall she was still happy. Aaron drove to the store that I requested and let us out. He being the wise soul he is, stayed in the truck.
Kiera, Grandmommy and I ventured into the store and back to the girls section to look for bargains. This is the part where time begins to blur. Let’s just say taking an excited six-year old clothes shopping before going to the zoo…leads to a little bit of chaos.
Kiera held my hand as we walked back to the girls clothing.We wandered into one of the sections and I let go of Kiera’s hand to begin looking through the clothes on the rack. She is very good about staying close to my side while shopping, although I always try to keep an eye on her.
As I reached for the first rack of clothes, everything changed. In fact, I might not have noticed the music playing over the sound system, if it weren’t for the sudden dancing movements of my child. I dropped my hand from the rack of clothes and turned to face her.
She was bobbing her head, shaking her hips and swinging her arms in rhythm to the music. Wide-eyed,I watched her for a moment, making sure she wouldn’t hit any one passing by and turned back to the clothes rack. Except now, my attention was not 50-50, it was more like 70% on Kiera and 30% on the rack.
Grandmommy and I weeded through clothes as Kiera continued to spin and dance to the music. Suddenly, a wiggling blouse on a hanger appeared in front of me. I followed the wiggly blouse to Kiera’s hand as she held it out for my approval while continuing to dance.
Holding it steady, I looked at the tag to check the size.“Baby, that is too small.” I released my hold on the blouse and it was whipped away and hung back on the rack with a flourish. She danced and shuffled to another rack, somehow managing to dig through the clothes while still dancing.Before I could turn, a different blouse was held up for me to inspect. I managed to grab it before it followed Kiera into a spin. “This is cute and it’s the right size.” I said, latching on to the whirling child. “Let’s go to the dressing room.”
“Which room do we want?” I asked Kiera as we walked into the dressing room.
“5!” She excitedly declared. “No, wait, someone is in there.Let’s take number 6!”
I followed her into the dressing room, hung her clothes and stood her on the bench. “Are we going to the zoo after this?” She asked as she changed into an outfit.
“After this we are going to go eat lunch, then we will go to the zoo.” I explained.
“But, I really want to go to the zoo.” She replied as she slid the t-shirt on.
Trying not to sigh, as I held her still and adjusted the sleeves on the shirt, I responded, “I understand that. But, we need to eat lunch before we go to the zoo. That way we have more time to spend at the zoo.”
Sounds like a simple explanation, right? I mean, did you understand what I was saying?
“O.k. but I really want to go to the zoo now.” Kiera replied as she stood in front of the mirror, turning this way and that.
Inwardly, I growled. “Baby. What did I say?” I asked patiently.
Groaning and slumping her shoulders, she answered. “First,we are going to eat, then we will go to the zoo.”
“Perfect!” I responded and opened the door to the dressing room so we could get Grandmommy’s opinion on the jeans.
It was as if I had released the Tasmanian devil from that dressing room… Well, more like if I had locked the Tasmanian devil up and fed it straight sugar for a week, then released it. She came flying out of the dressing room, ran to the mirrors at the end of the room, twisted, spun,danced, and twisted some more. She wasn’t destructive like the Tasmanian, but,boy, could she spin.
“I like the jeans!” She said as she continued to bounce on the balls of her feet before throwing herself into a spin to see if the shirt would billow out.
I looked at Grandmommy who hid a grin behind her hand and shrugged her shoulders as if to say, “Have fun. She’s your child.”
It was actually amazing to watch. If I asked her to standstill, her feet stopped moving but her arms would fly around as she wiggled to the music. If I asked her to turn around, she spun like a top.
By squinting my eyes just right, I managed to get a good enough idea if the clothes fit her before she whirled to try on another outfit. We finally walked out of the store two hours later with two pairs of jeans and a couple of shirts.
Lesson learned. Never take your child shopping before going to the zoo.
