What a weekend. Tobie wants to blog about it later, so I won’t now. However, we did take the kids to the mall today for the first time as a family. We ended up parking in the expectant/new mother parking. While we were unloading, another car probably waited a few minutes for us to shut our doors so they could park next to us. Out of this car comes this mom with two children. Her youngest daughter couldn’t have been younger than 3. So my question to you is, when is a new mother an old mother?
First stop was to Old Navy so Tobie could buy some shorts. Even though Labor Day marks the end of summer for most of the country, we probably will have another month of 100+ degree days. The mall was packed. There were so many parents there with their kids. Speaking of which I need to address a few things. Firstly, what is the deal with kids in this day and age having kids. We must have seen at least a dozen couples that looked fresh out of high school with children. It brought up one our ongoing debates about about how people can make it in this day and age by having kids so young. You look at them as babies themselves. They ditch one sex education class in high school and they get to skip their twenties and go straight to parenthood. And what’s the deal with the direction people cruise the mall? There are rules to this right? It’s like driving a car, you stay on the right, right? We had to dodge too much stroller and young punk traffic as they were not obeying the rules of the road. Stupid punks!
Anyhoo, the main reason for going to the mall was to buy Cole some shoes. Even though we have a new pair, about 1 hour after wearing them he flips out because they are two tight. So off to Gouge Stride Rite we went. Cole definitely has a big foot. He’s a 6 with a double width. Apparently my Hobbit feet are to blame for this. I honestly was expecting to pay $12-15 for the pair. How about$46. He seems to like them so that’s important. When we about to leave the store, Tobie asked the gal to measure Paige’s feet. Yep, she needed new shoes because she was also part of the Hobbit clan. Luckily the store had some on sale for $15. They weren’t that pretty, but worked, so off we went to cruise more of the mall. And what’s the deal with these kid shoes costing as much as adult shoes, they are like 1/8 the size but still have the same price. It’s like the time we bought a new couch for the house and we were going to get a sofa seat which was more than 1/3 smaller than the main couch,but the price only had a $50 difference. It just doesn’t makes sense to me. Ayways, the nice girl who helped us with the the sell said “see you in a few months for another foot resizing”. Damn her!
Next up was to Kaybee Toys. This place seems very overpriced with some questionable offerings. We ended up getting one of those expandable tunnels for the kids to run in. Now you can’t leave the mall without getting some mall junk food. So we headed over to the Dairy Queen which is usually not that crowded. It was this time. We got a couple of soft serve cones to share with the babies. Paige couldn’t get enough. You stick the cone in her mouth and about 1 second later she would “grunt” for more. Cole was also pretty funny about it. Cole hates cold food. I would jam the cone in his mouth, he would make a terrible face like “what did you just do to me?”. Then about 1 second after looking confused, he was trying to grab the cone for some more.
The more we looked at Paige’s shoes, the more we hated them. They looked like orthopedic shoes my grandma would wear. So off we went back to Stride Rite to pay some dollars for the ones we originally wanted. After we returned the shoes, there was a huge play area in front of the store. We decided to let the kids play for a little bit. First I had to coax Paige into the play area. She did a 180 andtriedto run into the children photo place, but ended up running into the glass. It would have been kind of funny if it weren’t my kid.There were 100 crazy sugar high kids of all ages running around. It was a little overwhelming for the kids (was this the source material for Lord Of The Flies?). They did have this giant crocodile that Pagie liked. Every time we would go near it I would be like “Are you my mommy” and she would smile (that’s from one of the books we read about a baby croc who lost his way…snap snap).
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You can’t get any better than stride Rite. My kids are 20 and 18 and their good leather shoes that I bought there for them (still have them) would easily work if I had a grandkid. I buy my 12month old niece’s shoes there too.
I have a Stride Rite outlet near my home, maybe next time you can send me a picture of what you want, and I can get them and mail them? They are 1/2 the price. I pay roughly $50 for 2 pair instead of $50 for 1. They are the exact same shoes as in the retail stores, at the same time…Let me know. ALL my kids shoes come from Stride Rite.:o)
You better believe I’m going to be searching the web for similar shoes at a lower price Sabrina! haha
We went shopping with our wagon (outdoor mall), and couldn’t believe the number of people who would walk right in front of us. BIG WAGON (covered and all), and we were cut off right and left! (punks)
And we actually walked by the KB Toys outlet. I know, sacrilegious. But we did stop by the Carter’s outlet, the OshKosh outlet, the Gap Kids outlet, the Old Navy outlet, and the Children’s Place outlet. Whew.
KB Bad - FAO good.
I know I take a while to ship things out, but if there is something you want or need, check with me first and tell me it is urgent. I will send it post haste. I promise promise to send at least one box of goods out this week!
Nikki,
Will you be my boys auntie too ??
J/K
But, seriously - you could if you wanted too…..
Nikki
If we ever see a package from the Swartz, we might praise the Swartz in all it’s glory, but until then…
try e- bay- we just got a great brand new pair for $14…..!!! Course Sammy has M feet and it seems like everyone out there has W or extra wide, so you may have more competition, but its worth a try:)
as far as it goes for mom’s using the new and expecting mother’s parking, I find it’s better to not judge. Having 6 year old triplets. I find it it a struggle at times to make it from a busy parking lot to the store. In most cases I wouldnt use the spaces at this point but if my son was in “his mood” i might be tempted.
Eric - I told Tobie about Stride Rite when you were over - (sorry) but I knew they would have shoes to fit the kids. I did tell her they weren’t cheap - but they do last so much better than the cheap ones. There is a Stride Rite outlet at Anthem. Their prices are better but not always a great selection and a little bit of a haul for the clan.
Cindy - So you are the one responsible for this? Okay you owe me $100. I’ll take payment in the form of cookies though.
LOL @ Eric. My son is an Extra Wide in a shoe, and has been since his first pair of size 3’s. He’s now in a 10 1/2 XW at age 3, and I can tell you that Stride Rite is the ONLY store I can find shoes for him. The peed keeps telling me his feet won’t be wide forever, but he’s got big feet, the kid can’t help it, he just got big feet…So I discovered the joys of our Stride Rite. I like that they measure the kids too, so I don’t have to fight with him. Seriously, if you guys want, I will go get them for you and mail them, I understand being on a budget, my husband is active duty military, it’s not like we have a lot of extra $$ with 2 kids.
Sabrina - Thanks for the offer, but I just like complaining. After all, I haven’t bought a new pair of shoes in 3 years and my last pair of New Balance shoes were less than the babies, but I just like complaining.
Yo!
We havent ventured out to the mall yet. But after reading your post about all the young punks and strollers I def won’t be going on a Sat afternoon. (We’d have to maneuver through 10 degree cap tilts, saggin’ pants and Jesus bling!) Baby girl needs a new pair of shoes and we are just holding out. She can still wear these little blue tennies that are so adorable but not to church. I freak when I have to spend $15 for shoes. It’s a damn crime I tell ya. I got a pair of Buster Brown walking shoes at a resale shop for $4. They are perfect and hardly worn. I was lucky enough to stumble upon those. But as the kids get bigger just think…they are gonna be able to pick out their own shoes and they are going to cost an arm and a leg. No more Elmo on the side! Gotta have a Swoosh or some stripes. Target shoes are very cute but with the Hobbit Syndrome Im not too sure if the tikes can fit into them. My kids are kinda hobbit-ish too. Good day! Oh and all the babies are adorable in the new photos. Paige is a reallll cutie I tell ya!
I am more than happy to make you cookies - but I thought you were on a diet Eric?
Cindy - oh yeah, I forgot, nevermind. Stupid diet