Trip to the mall

This morning I decided we were going to the mall to go mall walking. Matthew is a little under the weather with a cold so I didn't want to go to the Y and spread around all his germs as that's where he picked up whatever's he got in the first place, but I wanted to exercise some and get out of the house. Since it was 1 degree this morning, walking outside was out of the question, so we decided on the mall.

While I was getting ready to go in our bathroom, Sam got out his tools and was working on our bed. He also put on a hat which he's never worn before but suddenly got the urge to try out. I snapped a picture of him as he was quite cute with his cock-eyed hat on and his tools.

He insisted on wearing his hat most of the day, including to the mall. There were plenty of walkers there at 8:30 when we arrived so I heard more than once, "Cute kids." And the kids were pretty good too being strapped into the double wide stroller. I avoided the play area as we walked our laps so as to avoid Sam's begging to go to the play area and walked quickly to try to keep their interest and my own. The mall has a motorized train that drives around giving kids rides but since the mall wasn't open yet (other than for walkers and Caribou Coffee) it wasn't driving around, but Sam was still excited every time we'd walk by it parked in the middle of the mall. Another store has a wooden bear outside of it so that was another exciting feature on our walk. We did four laps which took just over a half hour, then we made our way to the play area which was open, although it's not supposed to be during mall hours. Matthew had about enough of sitting in the stroller and was ready to stretch his legs a bit. Apparently looking for the train and bear was not enough to keep him happily occupied, although I bet Sam could have made it for a few more laps.

The play area was empty and Sam had fun running from one coin-operated car/vehicle to another and he still hasn't figured out that they actually do something more than just sit there and make some random noise. We'll see how long that lasts. But for now, he was having a great time sitting on the cars, pretending steering and getting super-excited with the video screens in the vehicles would do a little demo. Matthew also enjoyed sitting in the cars and after some snack he was in a much better mood. That's just the way that kid works. Keep him fed and he's happy. We strategically left the mall just before 10AM--that way I won't purchase any of the beautiful items I walked by in the store windows four times.