we love shopping

We had a breakdown night this week and when Erica left for class the kids and I headed out to . . . the mall. It was raining and they seriously needed a large area where they could literally bounce off the walls. Which we proceeded to do in the strange composite material play area until Cayla started to do the pee dance, at which point we put our shoes back on and speedily found the potty. Along the way, we enountered a ramp, which Collin and I walked down and Cayla attempted to roll down, running through(under) three groups of shoppers before I could corral her. The potty happened to be located near the fountain, which Cayla insisted she wanted to get into. When Cayla gets an idea in her head ("I want to go to school", "I want to eat chips", etc.) she is able to verbalize nothing else, so after the thirtieth time explaining that we can't swim in mall fountains, I was able to persude her to walk away, but only with the enticement of dinner at Olga's (I told you it was a breakdown). It really was not a decadent activity - it was literacy training. Collin picked up his curly fries and declared "It's a C".