At the Ridgmar Mall, January 2008
#1: We love the Ridgmar Mall. It is about 20 minutes from our house, and in theory, should be a great place to take kids because it has a really fun indoor playground right next to The Children's Place, the Pretzel Place, and Haagen Daaz. So, about six months ago, I decided to take all three kids there in hopes of passing a few hours until Jerry got home.
At this time, Claire was just potty-training and Darren was still going - um - #2 - in his underwear for some reason. We left the house in high spirits and then the van started smelling like you-know-what. So we spent the first half hour at the mall in the bathroom. By that time, everyone was hungry, so we decided to get pretzels. After eating, I turned to throw the trash away and Darren asked if he could go play. Since it was right there, I said yes. Less than a minute later, I walked up to the entrance of the playground with Miles, and didn't see Darren or Claire, but I thought maybe they were in one of the tunnels.
After several minutes I started walking around, calling their names, but couldn't find them. I started running through the mall calling their names and quickly came upon Darren, who was looking for leftover candy in the row of candy machines. I asked him where Claire was, and he said he didn't know. As I called out her name, a couple of girls coming from Dillard's asked if I was looking for Claire. They had seen her wandering around and taken her to security. I picked her up, we left immediately, got stuck in traffic for an hour, and I vowed that we would never go there again!
#2: Fast forward to last Tuesday: Darren and Claire asked me if we could go to the Ridgmar Mall, so I decided to give it another shot. They needed some new school clothes, anyway. I gave them a big lecture about staying with me at all times, going to the bathroom before we left, etc. We got there and as I was putting Miles into his stroller, I heard Claire say, "Oh, Crap! (!!!I don't know where she got that!) I don't have any shoes in the car!" UUGGHH!!! I put her in the stroller and carried Miles all the way to Old Navy and bought her some flip-flops. At least they were cheap. Then we did a little shopping, had a pretzel, and played.
The afternoon ended with a security guard telling me Darren was pushing a girl down the slide (Darren said it was part of their game, and she wanted him to.) We left after that. The kids said they had a great time. Maybe in another six months I'll be brave enough to try again. Unfortunately, by that time, Darren will probably be too tall for the playground!
At this time, Claire was just potty-training and Darren was still going - um - #2 - in his underwear for some reason. We left the house in high spirits and then the van started smelling like you-know-what. So we spent the first half hour at the mall in the bathroom. By that time, everyone was hungry, so we decided to get pretzels. After eating, I turned to throw the trash away and Darren asked if he could go play. Since it was right there, I said yes. Less than a minute later, I walked up to the entrance of the playground with Miles, and didn't see Darren or Claire, but I thought maybe they were in one of the tunnels.
After several minutes I started walking around, calling their names, but couldn't find them. I started running through the mall calling their names and quickly came upon Darren, who was looking for leftover candy in the row of candy machines. I asked him where Claire was, and he said he didn't know. As I called out her name, a couple of girls coming from Dillard's asked if I was looking for Claire. They had seen her wandering around and taken her to security. I picked her up, we left immediately, got stuck in traffic for an hour, and I vowed that we would never go there again!
#2: Fast forward to last Tuesday: Darren and Claire asked me if we could go to the Ridgmar Mall, so I decided to give it another shot. They needed some new school clothes, anyway. I gave them a big lecture about staying with me at all times, going to the bathroom before we left, etc. We got there and as I was putting Miles into his stroller, I heard Claire say, "Oh, Crap! (!!!I don't know where she got that!) I don't have any shoes in the car!" UUGGHH!!! I put her in the stroller and carried Miles all the way to Old Navy and bought her some flip-flops. At least they were cheap. Then we did a little shopping, had a pretzel, and played.
The afternoon ended with a security guard telling me Darren was pushing a girl down the slide (Darren said it was part of their game, and she wanted him to.) We left after that. The kids said they had a great time. Maybe in another six months I'll be brave enough to try again. Unfortunately, by that time, Darren will probably be too tall for the playground!
1 comment:
Cracking up. It's like pregnancy /labor. You forget how bad things were, and you give it another shot. And then you curse yourself for thinking that this time would be any different. But what's a mom to do? Stay home all day? Way to be adventurous, anyways. Oh, and at least Claire didn't say something WORSE than crap, huh?
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