Shopping with Jade

Jade and I had a shopping day together last week. Not our first. Here is a picture of our first. She had a little trouble keeping up with me that day. This one was very different. Ian's brothers were staying with us while his parents were out of town and Ian needed some things. I figured it would be a good time to let the boys be boys and the girls could go shopping. I love shopping with my kids. Well I thought I loved shopping with my kids.

Both of the kids had a play date that day. Thank you Cindy. That allowed me to get some rest and pack for our little trip easily. I picked Jade up from the Reid's home on my way out of town. She had a blast but was exhausted. Perfect actually because we have an hour and a half drive. The drive went great and Jade woke up in Indio while I was checking out the new Target they are building there. I was really hoping it was open but it wasn't so I drove into Palm Desert to hit the Target there.

We did some looking around and Jade was getting a bit grumpy. I thought perusing the toy aisles would improve her mood. The only thing she found that caught her interest were stuffed dogs. I swear on each aisle she found a dog of some sort. I had her say goodbye to them as I put them on the shelves again. The last dogs we found were cuddly and cute. I was willing to get her one and as I showed her all the colors she loved, tickled, talked to, barked at each one. When I tried to get her to pick one she told them goodbye one by one and was ready to move on. That was easy.


Jade loves shoes. She will cry if you get her shoes and don't put them on her. She gets them out herself and trys to put them on. Her little feet are growing so fast right now. Jade is going up a size every month it seems. So we go through the shoe aisle to try to find her a new pair. They don't seem to have any in her size. As I'm passing the shoes she starts crying and pointing. Seriously you didn't cry for a toy but you are going to cry for shoes? She needs them anyway so I search and search and finally find her a pair. Finally we find the cute little brown ones pictured below. Jade is very happy with them.


We hit the mall because unfortunately I can already use maternity pants. Yeah it sucks. So Jade and I go to Motherhood. I don't bother to get her one of the little mall cars because I'm on a mission and I don't plan to take very long. Let me start by saying I used to take Teagan shopping all the time. I had no idea one of my children would behave as Jade did. As I'm looking around the store I put her down for a second to look at some things. She runs out of the store screaming with her hands in the air. I get her and she doesn't it again and again.

I have to try some things on so I take her in the dressing room with me and bribe her with cocoa puffs completely ignoring the no food and drink signs they have every where. I'm totally desperate. Jade manages to escape at least six times. Most of the time I catch her before she gets out of the store but this is craziness I've never dealt with before. The situation was so bad the girl that worked there asked me why I didn't go get her a little red car. I explained I was just in a hurry but thought in my head because I had no idea she would do this.

Finally a little family comes in. Jade runs out to escape and she stops in front of this little boy Teagan's age that is waiting with his dad. Now his dad if you were to judge a book by it's cover looked as though he would not be at all interested in children, motor cross but not children. He was tattooed and pierced and he immediately got down to his knees and started talking to Jade. She of course is still enamored by the little boy. This guy was totally sweet. I really hope the new addition to their family will be a little girl because he looked at Jade like she was a treasure. Which she is.

Our next stop was Walmart and I knew what we were getting first. Oh yes a baby leash. Don't judge me. :) When Kelsey sent over some pictures from D.C. I saw Mitchell with one and thought, I would totally get one of those if I had an energetic little boy. Well I have an energetic little girl so it was time. I grabbed it and handed it to her. She loved it and tickled it. It was the best thing she had ever seen. Well good they are getting along. We get done at Walmart and there is one more stop. Costco. She does pretty well there but is ready for bed. Below is a picture of Jade in the local book store with her monkey leash.


Now when I go shopping I pack snacks for the kids because I don't really eat all day. I plan to go get something really yummy in the evening and I hate to stop shopping to eat. So I thought Jade and I could go hit In and Out. We got there and it was really busy. I order Jade a drink of her own and she comes unglued. She pulls the straw and trys as hard as she can to swat it out of my hand. I threw it in the trash and she went nuts. People were staring more like glaring. I changed our order to To Go and as I waited some nice man sympathized. He has two children of his own. We could not get out of there fast enough.

The drive home was peaceful. It gave me time to think. Gosh what is coming next? Teagan was and is a joy to shop with. Jade unfortunately is not but I'm not giving up on her. The same traits that make Jade so exciting also make her more difficult. I'm sure I can be blamed for those special genetics. What will come with this next baby? The personalities of the two we have are so different. Could we possibly come up with a child completely different from the two we already have. We shall see. In Jade's defense we found later that she was cutting four teeth at once. I'm sure that and being worn out had a lot to do with her evening behavior. Oh well. Like I said I'm not giving up. We will try again soon with a less busy shopping trip.