Black Friday

Friday, 28 November 2008

I survived Black Friday shopping with a 17 month old toddler. Starting at 8:30 am, I left the house with a mission to get only the things on my post-it note. Bikram yoga studio was the first stop. Chase was super clingy to me, probably overwhelmed by the regular yogis trying to visit with him. My friend's daughter (a few months younger than him) tried to shove Scooby Doo graham crackers in his mouth, which he took of course. But, he just wanted to hang by me while I tried on clothes. I managed to find out that Chris had visited the studio before work and bought some items for me already, but somehow I still managed to get some things for myself as well. After all, it is my birthday tomorrow.

Spent the next few hours at Ala Moana Shopping Center braving the crowds. Again, stuck with my list. Went only to the places where I had a birthday coupon to use or a store that had a crazy % off deal. Made out with some Christmas gifts, a cardigan, and some sandals that I needed, all on sale of course.

Chase had one meltdown (too much time in the stroller). He wanted to swim with the koi, and those fish entertained him a bit while I ran into Stacy and her sister. I tried to hold him back from leaning too far over the wall, and he kept pushing my hand/arm away. He just wanted to get a really close up look at those fish, Mr. Independent! Chris met us at the food court for lunch, but was not crazy about the crowds, so he just watched Chase while I got and ate my lunch. By afternoon, Chase just wanted to be free. He tried to run all over the mall, but of course, I couldn't let him do that in such a crowded, big mall.

So, I let him run all over the shoe area in Nordstroms (which I'm sure they just loved, him making circles around the cashier area and jumping on their nice leather couches). At one point, I told Chase, "Okay, Mommy's going to go bye bye." And, of course, what did he do? He just waved bye to me.

He crashed on the way home. But he still had plenty of energy to run around at home the rest of the afternoon.