Some people in my family have a shopping gene. They love to shop and some of them actually love to buy stuff. I didn’t get it. I shop with a list, I go to two or three stores where I know where everything is and I experience visual overload in Walmart!
Mouse got the gene. She can spend hours looking at things and thinking about what she would buy, what she would use it for, who she would give it too etc.
At Target, “Look Mom, this little dress would probably fit N. ( a baby at our church who’s a month younger than Jack) Wouldn’t she be cute in it?”
“Oh Mom, we’re going to Kroger and they have dairy free yogurt that Bull likes we should get some.”
“Oh, Mom, I like that dress, you could make it wider so it would fit me!” and on and on…
I find this alternately amusing and exasperating. On the one hand I’m glad she has a good eye and thinks of others, on the other hand sometimes I think my brain will explode if another purchasing suggestion is injected into my brain!
Yesterday we were out and about and she saw a sign for a yard sale.
“Mom, what’s today?”
“May 31st, it’s the last day of May.”
“Oh good, that sign said ‘Yard-Sale June 1’! We can go to yard sales tomorrow.”
So we went to yard-sales. We scored a few really good deals, but mostly we shopped. Just the two of us. We looked at toys..
“Oh Bull, would love that forklift!” and he did.
Mats for the playroom,
“Oh Mom, just what you’ve been looking for!” and it was.
“Those pink shirts would fit you, Mom.” and they did.
In between stops she sang “How many yard-sales can there be in one day?” to a tune of her own making and ‘Jubilate Deo’.
Every time I was ready to go home.
“Look there’s another one! Let’s go look!”
We did find her a couple of pairs of seersucker shorts to wear under her dresses, but really she was just pleased to be out with me, shopping and looking at pretty things. I suspect there will be plenty more of these expeditions in our future. And who knows? Maybe I’ll even develop my own shopping gene!