Wal-Mart Wanderings

Alice and I were out and about this morning and had some time to kill before our next appointment. The babe was sick of her car seat already so I decided we could go for a walk in Wal-Mart. (Note to self: this sort of outing only appears possible with a child so freakishly careful and obedient as Alice appears to be SO FAR...do NOT get comfortable!). We wandered the garden center and she pointed out all the perfect "nay-noes" on the bags of plant fertilizer. The sliding doors magically opened in front of her she looked back at me once, smiling, before walking straight through. She wandered over to the pet section and found the dog toys. She wanted to hug them ALL until she realized they contained startlingly loud and obnoxious squeakers.

Then we came to the toy section and she was all business. She tested a few huge teddy bears for hugability, inspected a pile of bike helmets to be stocked, greeted customers and employees with a cheerful wave and smiley "hi", and noticed a toy out of place. Not just any toy, but a stuffed DOG that came with its own BAG! This girl likes bags (stuff them full, empty them, sling them on her shoulder to go "bye bye", stick them on her head, hang them on hooks, etc.) and she loves dogs (watching them, hearing them, petting them, finding them in books, barking like them, etc.). In fact, "bag" and "dog" are  spoken by Alice almost as often as "tomato" or "Where are you?" these days (but never as often as "Daddy"...few words are spoken with such frequency or such enthusiasm in this household as "Daddy"). She got pretty excited about this particular toy. I was nervous a scene might erupt when it came time to move on, but it didn't. This girl surprises me every day. She cheerfully put the toy back on the shelf in preparation for her next adventure: paint supplies.