So, I have been to Toys R Us a couple times with my children. Each time I vowed I would never enter that store with children again. Why? Because every time do I leave with a child tucked under my arm, kicking and screaming. Well, it must be like childbirth where you forget about the pain.
Fast forward... Max got a toy for his birthday that I needed to return to Toys R Us. I had a couple of hours to kill and thought that I could return the gift and just let the kids play for awhile. Fun outing, huh? I had Max and Malia with me. We walk into the store and the FIRST thing - there were kid sized snow shovels. My kids of course want one so I pull two out and think they can play with them while I return the toy. They do, but everyone that walks into the door gets 'shoveled' by one of my children. It's time to move on but I cannot pry the shovel out of Malia's hands, so I think, "who cares, she can hold it, right? I'll ditch it before we leave the store." (Which Kyrk is very much opposed to- not putting something back where it belongs) I have gotten over the guilt, as much of my time at any store with 3 kids has turned into survival 101. Anyway, we proceed two feet down the aisle before my kids find something else to play with. Fine, I have 2 hours. Well, after it's been 45 min and we have only moved 5 feet from the door, I start to get nervous. We're never going to make it out of there because of the GENIUS (heavy sarcasm) who designed the layout of TRU. If you do not already know, the layout of TRU is a circle. There are no shortcuts to the registers. That is just a mean rotten thing for anyone to do. So, like I said, we're still only 5 feet from the front door. Malia iss going in between running to different toys and pulling them off the shelf, taking them from other kids, leaving the shovel in the middle of the aisle where people are running into it with their carts, or actually purposefully running into people with the shovel. I am now asking myself what is wrong with me? Am I that stupid? Haven't I done this before? Have I not vowed a sacred oath not to put myself in this situation again?
We had to get moving. I try to ditch this dangerous shovel at any chance I can but they will not forget. So, I drag one child from their toy, kicking and screaming, down as many aisles as I dare and get them interested in another toy. I go back for the next one. This process continues as I am profusely apologizing to people about getting run into by the blasted shovel. I am exhausted and actually sweating. By the end of a couple hours, I am dragging two kids, mostly Malia, kicking and screaming, and a SHOVEL that I have now bought out the door of Toys R US. Telling myself I will never, ever do this again. And this time I mean it!
Well, the shovel thing actually turned out to be a good thing. The kids will shovel for hours on end out in the cold, loving every minute. So, I went back to get another one, but this time without the kids.
We took the Polar Express to visit Santa at the North Pole. The people that put this on are amazing. They do it all for free. Wow. 
Ally got the dog she had been asking and asking for. What a lucky girl.
