![]()
I so love having most of my nieces local. I've had the chance to spend some extra time with the girls over the past week and there have been priceless moments with them!
Last night, however, my poor sister-in-law, who is suffering from a major case of "stuck at home with a preschooler and infant" syndrome, picked me up and we went to Wal-Mart just to get her out of the house. I let her think that I needed to go so she'd feel better, and Bella was super excited too, listing off all the things she needed to do at Wal-mart, which still includes visiting the fish and crabs in the pet department, the lobsters in the meat department, and Dunkin' Donuts at the front door.
With no specific agenda or grocery list, I held Holly while helping Bella push the cart and my SIL was trying to remember what she might need since we were there. Holly helped her remember that she was low on diaper wipes (ah, mustard colored blow outs!) and I held Holly up to the fish tanks while Bella told her all about the crabs and the fish.
Holly decided it was time to eat, so I gave Holly to her mother so she could nurse. Bella and I began to wander around, checking out the two-wheel bikes, the "big bubbles", and all the balls for sale. We bonked each other on the heads with wacky noodles and stopped to sniff the artificial flowers in the craft department before our walk around the store led us to the camping and sports section.
Bella saw those balls first and ran right for them. There were soccer balls (my brother is a fan) and basket balls and footballs and pink softballs and yellow balls and pink balls and blue balls and green balls.... oh Bella was in heaven. I took each ball out as she pointed to them and we attempted to dribble each one.
When we were done with each ball, I shot them over the top of the display so the ball could fall into its slot. Bella thought that was more exciting that dribbling them on the floor. "Do it again!" she laughed over and over.
I had a 100% shot rate until the last ball, the blue one. When I shot that one up, it hit the rim of the ball rack and bounced off the top shelf next to it, clearing off the shelf. Down came Coleman water coolers (soft, zipable ones) and balls in boxes. To me, it seemed like the entire shelf came down; in reality, only 4 items came down, but still...
I was mortified and barely had enough time to move Bella out of the way of a crashing water cooler. When things stopped bouncing and the shoppers around us laughed that "glad its not me" laugh, Bella laughed too.
"Auntie made a boo boo; Auntie made a big mess!" she yelled out to her mother down the aisle.
Ever in search of a teaching moment, I took Bella's hand and went around the corner to where the sports clerk was helping another customer. I explained to her what happened and apologized. She winked at me and told me she'd pick it up. Bella watched it all very solemnly.
"Does auntie need to go in a time out for being naughty?" she asked the lady.