Shopping

One thing a man and his wife needn't do too often together.... shopping.

This morning I had the bright idea to go shopping as a family to look for a gift for Evie's impending first birthday. Can't believe my little love is one year old. And on that line of thought I remembered some cool soft foam blocks that a friend of mine has for her kids and remembered that they were sold at B&Q. This is a hardware store. One should have just stopped there and really thought it through and considered that taking ones handyman husband to a handyman's store was probably not a good idea. You know they say men are from mars and women are from venus. Well, in my opinion women are from "denying oneself" and men are from "are my needs being immediately met?"

Several reasons why it's best to not go shopping together, at least to a place like this:

1. You invariably have to wait while said husband wanders the aisles totally oblivious to his surroundings and the needs of his troupe, in search of one particular item. However the problem in these stores is that that one particular item has many different brands and options. The only thing there was one of were the foam blocks, which weren't the same and weren't as good and maddeningly expensive. So I had finished shopping the instant we had arrived..... But, each time we turned a corner, there was another grinder from another brand just begging to be looked at and tried out....

2. We spent so long looking there, there was time to sit quietly on a display in the carpet and flooring aisle and feed Evie so long that she eventually fell asleep.

3. All that shopping gets man to thinking a bathroom break is required. This is after already holding sleeping Evie for half an hour, while arm is aching and I'm dying to just sit somewhere.

4. All that shopping and bathroom breaking gets everyone hungry. Still have a sleeping baby, so needing a one arm option, which ended up to be MacDonalds..... yuck. Daddy however enjoyed a nice Teppanyaki meal across the way from us, which takes a long time to cook and eat, and inevitably needs two free arms to eat while sitting on a barstool. Even if she had been awake it's a completely impractical option for dining with a baby. Tilly kept stealing looks at Daddy eating his lovely cooked meal and looking at her cruddy fries that she doesn't like to eat anyway. She ended up with him and even got a free fried egg and rice from one of the chefs. Do you know Teppanyaki? It's the one where you sit at a bar type setting with all the chef's standing in front of you cooking the food you order.

Ironically all the discomfort of holding a sleeping one year old for an hour could have been avoided had I remembered to bring the pram. This really is something I should have thought of. She would have gone to sleep easily in the pram and I could have left the store with the kids all together and gone somewhere else, instead of hovering around places that had somewhere to sit on and rest. She's getting kind of heavy now....

And had we gone to say, an actual Toy Store, then the tables would have been turned and Daddy would have been the one waiting while I wandered aimlessly around to my hearts content. However, Daddy would have been far more patient and gracious than I was....... But on reflection I don't really believe I would wander around to my hearts content, what mother does when she's out shopping with the kids? 

So tomorrow we are going to go to an actual book and toy store and buy a proper gift for Evie. I actually had the foam blocks in mind for Tills. I haven't the time or the inclination to plan a big party for Evie's first. Something small and easy will do. I'm sure you don't remember these things anyway.