Unfun trip to the mall

Yes, I did say "unfun". That's exactly what it was. We intended to go get some long sleeve shirts for Drew for school. Drew especially loves the elevators, and Blake is up for most anything, so we thought it would be a good time. We talked about going to Max and Erma's, but got a late start, so we decided to get a bite to eat at the food court. We stopped at Chic-fil-A which is on one end of the mall, got two kids' meals and headed to the Macy's elevator. The last time we'd gone on the mall elevator, Drew freaked out. It is an all-glass jobby and so we went with the regular-walled one at Macys. Drew started crying and saying he wanted to go home and that he had to go potty. We went up to the third floor to the bathroom. I took Drew and he started crying. We went down a floor so we could hit the food court. I had Sbarro baked ziti in mind. We got to the men's fragrance counter, which was about ten feet from the door of Macy's. He sat down on the floor, crying. He said he had to go potty again, that he wanted to stay at the "M" store. (one of the letters he recognized in the Macy's sign) I sent Eric and Blake to the food court and told them to get started and I'd be there with Drew as soon as I could. Of course, there were several people who gave us a wide berth as they passed by. Two teenage girls made fun of him by yelling, "I want to go home!" and laughed about it. After a few minutes, I got him to the table, where he stood and cried, taking bites here and there from his food. We got several stares, but nothing too hateful. Mostly just curious people. I usually just gave an apologetic smile and turned my attention back to Drew. We discussed whether we should attempt to stay at the mall, or if we should just go right home. We decided to try walking down to Sears and see how things went from there.

Drew wanted to go on the glass mall elevator, so we gave it a try. He got to push the buttons and was happy about that. I saw Children's Place on the way to Sears, and thought maybe they'd have some long sleeve uniform shirts. No dice. But they did have some long sleeve screenprinted tees for him. He actually cooperated with me trying one on him.

After Children's Place, we went to Sears and looked. They didn't have long sleeved polos there, either. Drew requested to go on the Sears elevator. We did, and he was happy with that.

After a few more stops, and no more success with our search, we went home.

I know this story kind of revolves around Drew, but the evening sort of revolved around Drew. Blake was well-behaved and rode in our big Maclaren stroller, looking at his book from Chic-fil-A. He enjoyed holding my hand as we walked out and Eric pushed his stroller. I was holding Blake's hand on one side and Drew's hand on the other. Blake thought this was great fun. About halfway home, Blake announced, "I'm wet!" Eric pulled over and I checked his pants. They were wet and it went through his jeans. Thankfully, we had packed extra pants for both kids. I changed him and we were off again.

We got home and put them right to bed. I was in bed less than five minutes later. What a night it was!