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walkitoutWe have a great independent bookstore in town, Willow Books. I love it. Unfortunately, it has been a little tricky figuring out a way to go there with T., which would be ideal. A while back, I discovered that if I brought drawing materials, he'd entertain himself for minutes at a time. That was great while it lasted. Then he started wanting to buy this particular book that had slick thick pages and dry-erase like markers and an eraser that came in a little attached pouch. He wanted to buy that book every time we went. I said no on outing three and got a half hour temper tantrum and had to bodily pick him up and force him into the car (more than once, since he scuttled across and got out the other side; his door is set up to not open from the inside). We didn't go back for a while.
Then I decided, screw it. We'll just buy more copies. But then he added Rainbow Fairies books. I successfully enforced an only-one rainbow fairies book per outing rule, but then he started wanting to buy the Samantha the Swimming Fairy book repeatedly, which, I might add, is another exhibit in the case for T. knowing how to read. After the second copy of Samantha made it home, I knew I needed to come up with a new plan.
The new plan involved the Willow Books canvas bag (which I had received in January after spending more than $100 on one outing), a copy of the dry-erase book, and a copy of Samantha the Swimming Fairy. I put the two books in the bag, took T. to Willow, told the nice people at the registers that I had two books in the bag and that we'd probably be "buying" them again and could they please disappear the new copies? I made sure I bought at least one book for real, obviously. It took them a minute to understand what I was asking, but as soon as they did, I overheard one of them say to another, wow, that's really intelligent. And today, after one of them recognized me as the person who did this the night before, they told me flat out, "You should write a parenting book."
Since I got out of the heat and into the AC of an independent bookstore, where I could pick up a copy of Klauer's _Acton_, published by Arcadia, and simultaneously pulled a fast one on T. AND got complimented on the excellence of my parenting skills, I have been doing a happy dance ever since.
Then I decided, screw it. We'll just buy more copies. But then he added Rainbow Fairies books. I successfully enforced an only-one rainbow fairies book per outing rule, but then he started wanting to buy the Samantha the Swimming Fairy book repeatedly, which, I might add, is another exhibit in the case for T. knowing how to read. After the second copy of Samantha made it home, I knew I needed to come up with a new plan.
The new plan involved the Willow Books canvas bag (which I had received in January after spending more than $100 on one outing), a copy of the dry-erase book, and a copy of Samantha the Swimming Fairy. I put the two books in the bag, took T. to Willow, told the nice people at the registers that I had two books in the bag and that we'd probably be "buying" them again and could they please disappear the new copies? I made sure I bought at least one book for real, obviously. It took them a minute to understand what I was asking, but as soon as they did, I overheard one of them say to another, wow, that's really intelligent. And today, after one of them recognized me as the person who did this the night before, they told me flat out, "You should write a parenting book."
Since I got out of the heat and into the AC of an independent bookstore, where I could pick up a copy of Klauer's _Acton_, published by Arcadia, and simultaneously pulled a fast one on T. AND got complimented on the excellence of my parenting skills, I have been doing a happy dance ever since.
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Date: 2010-04-08 06:13 pm (UTC)