As the words, "I hate the mall" were coming out of my mouth while we were there on Saturday I knew they weren't really true. I was just quite frustrated and roasting at the moment. They certainly crank the heat in there and I had forgotten that. Too many years ago, my girlfriend and I would go to work with her mother and spend the entire day at the mall. Very convenient when she worked at Sears. With the right people I'm sure I could wile away many hours there still. With my entire family like on Saturday, not so much.
My boys are old enough they could head out on their own and have a good time. With just Jake or just Emily I'm good. I only have to focus on one. Since their interests are quite different now both together is no picnic. Forget about looking at anything I might want to see my head already spinning in two oppsite directions it's safer to not go for three. Emily is reaching an age where she's into the mall. It's fun just to look and see everything even if you don't have the money to buy it.
I guess that's why my friend and I could spend eight hours there and not get bored. Although then there was a movie theatre we'd usually go see something in and eat up about two hours. We'd play with all the pets in the petstore we could get our hands on. I even bought a kitten and brought it home once. My mom wasn't thrilled but we kept him. There were two toy stores to have fun and play in. And an arcade too. There were record stores we could spend lots of time in. As you can still do we would just hang out on a bench and look for hot guys, or people watch. If we wanted to be more comfortable we'd go to the furniture departments of the major stores and hang out there on some comfy chairs until they kicked us out. We'd go to PZAZ, the dressy dress store no longer in the mall, and try on a whole bunch of things. Of course there were many places we did that. And don't forget about hanging in the food court and getting a little something here and there and there that sort of made up a good lunch. We'd call friends from the payphones that probably don't even exist there anymore, to see if they could come down too. Or anyone we could think of just to kill some time and have fun. We knew every inch of the place as we were there quite often with her mom. It was alwyas a great day.
I could spend a decent about of time there with Emily now looking around at all the clothing stores and things she's getting more into. The really sucky part of course is not being able to buy what she wants most of the time. We usually go there when she's got money to spend. Usually a gift card from someone for Christmas or her Birthday which is what brought us there partly on Saturday.
Trying to help her pick out nice clothes and stuff she needs, or could use, is always fun. I'm learning what her taste and style is compared to my own so I never buy her something she doesn't like. I always hated getting things I knew I'd never wear. Nothing ever got returned so I never got anything better or that I wanted unless I used my own money those days at the mall. I don't want her to have to return anything I've chosen. I want to know her better than that.
As I showed her things Saturday I made mental notes of the ones she liked and especially of the ones she didn't. She of course was focused on the toys in the store while I kept pulling her away to show her clothes. Almost everything she did get I had shown her but there were plenty of other things I showed her she did not like. The outfit she picked and bought I was surprised about. Although her new favorite color is aqua-marine and that may just be why she chose the outfit she did because it is her favorite color.
I never really took my older boys to the mall. It wasn't easy because there were always the two of them and again two different tastes and directions to go in. I also didn't have the money to spend there. I still don't but now remember how it's fun to go. And as long your buying something on sale, you can do ok. Jacob it's still all about the toys and fun stuff and every once in awhile likes the clothes. There really isn't any point to taking him there unless I want to go. Emily it's completely different. And yes probably because she is a girl. She gets the gift cards to shop, the boys never did, jake probably won't. She's into clothes and what she wears and how she looks. I'm having a lot of fun helping her pick out things to wear and get ready in the morning. Let's face it boy clothes just isn't fun. And boys themselves don't really get it or care.
Maybe it's a little adult playing doll dress up. But I never cared much what she wore before. It was what we could afford or what she got as cute presents mostly. There wasn't a lot of "Oh thats so cute! I have to get it for my little girl" going on. In fact there was none. I barely looked at anything else in the store except for what I needed and was there to buy. Now there finally (sort of) can be and will be. But of course not just for her. Jacob is obsessed with the movie "Despicable Me" and loves the minions from it. I HAD to get him a shirt with them on it when I saw it in Target today. Just HAD TO. He was so excited when he came home from school and saw it. I knew he would be. He screamed about it and had to wear it for a bit until we convinced him to take it off and wear to school tomorrow.
As I got older I went to the mall more with groups of friends to meet boys and hang out. Of course we still shopped and checked out the stores. And eventually got dresses from PZAZ for proms which made trying the dresses on there even more exciting. We were never there for eight hours though. Yet we still loved every minute of it. I'm sure Emily will want to hang out at the mall as she gets older too. I'm sure my husband won't like it but she'll certainly be allowed to. It's totally a girl thing. Although, I do remember plenty of boys hanging out there though I've no clue how much shopping they did.
I hope Emily and I will get to have plenty of trips to the mall, just us, to enjoy being girls. Thats part of what a mom is for right? Funny, I never liked going to the mall with my mom. Loved it with my friends, never my mom. Maybe because I had sisters that always came too? Who knows. I just hope Emily enjoys going with me as much and as long as I do with her (probably forever). We've only had a handful of solo trips so far but she's still little yet and so far so good.
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