Today we became the proud owners of three of the exact same stuffed whales (pictured above) from the dollar section of Target. Why, you ask? Well, because we need three of the same stuffed animal. Doesn’t everyone?
All kidding aside, here is how it happened. My kids love Target. I love Target. We are big Target fans. The kids go to Target with a few expectations: (1) that they will get to ride in the cool three-seated shopping cart, (2) that Mom will bring a lollipop for each of them to enjoy while they ride in the cool three-seated shopping cart, and (3) that they will leave with something from the dollar section. Let’s focus on #3.
Connor finds a set of fact cards about Space. Score. They are $1 and educational. Can’t beat that. This is where Connor exits the story and it becomes all about the girls. Here is the typical dollar section story of Emily and Camryn. Emily sees something that she wants, tells me, and then Camryn tells me that she wants the exact same thing. I then try to convince one of them to get something else because I don’t want to buy two of the exact same thing. This usually does not work in my favor and I give up pretty easily because it’s the dollar section and it just isn’t worth the fight. Today was no different, thus I leave the dollar section with two of the exact same stuffed whales and two happy girls.
At some point during our shopping trip, Camryn throws her whale in the cart. She’s on to bigger and better things…she wants to hold the pop tart box. Emily continues to hold her whale. A few aisles later, we find a cute little princess backpack and Emily is starting preschool in a week so we buy it. She wants to wear it so I put it on her back and we make our way to the check out. Checking out is the most chaotic part of the trip. As soon as we pull up to the check-out, it gets a little hairy. This is when all three are ready to get out, they all want to help unload the cart, they argue over who gets to put what on the conveyer belt, the check-out person is trying to talk to me, the kids are trying to talk to her, I’m loading bags and paying. Needless to say, my brain is a little scrambled and I’m ready to regain my structure and organization and load everyone and everything into the car.
I have a system for when we get to the car. I load the kids in first and get their buckles on. This way, they can’t go anywhere while I am unloading the cart and neatly packing our items into the back. I turn on music that they like, so they are content. So I get in the car and Emily asks for her whale from the bag. I say, “Sure” and as I am getting out to get her whale Camryn says, “I want my whale too!”. Sure, no problem. I look in every bag I have. There is only one whale. This. Can’t. Be.
I start to retrace my shopping in my head. I don’t recall two whales during check-out. I go back to the cart return to check the cart. No whale. I ask Connor if he remembers two whales during check-out and he says no. I’m racking my brain, trying to think of the last time I remember there being two whales. I can’t remember. I check the receipt. One whale. I know that leaving with one whale is not going to fly. The sentence started to come out of my mouth, “Em…how about Cam takes this one and next time we come back to Target we will get you the whale” but before I could even finish, the look of horror on Emily’s face made me think, not such a good idea. Connor tells me I have to go back in to Target to find the whale, that it’s probably sitting on the floor somewhere and someone is going to get it. Emily agrees of course.
I stood there for a few seconds, looked at them all buckled in and ready to leave. The thought of pulling them all out of the car again to go search the floors of Target for this $1 whale…no way. But, I needed to get another whale so I decided that I would go back in. The dollar section was right at the front. I knew there were more whales. And the first check-out lane was 10 feet from there. I would be quick. I locked them in the car, and ran in and out in probably 30 seconds. Success. We now had two whales again.
After we got home and unpacked the bags, Emily wanted to wear her new backpack around. She walked around the house for a bit, went into the playroom and pretended to arrive at school. Upon her arrival, she unzipped her back pack and proudly proclaimed, “I found the other whale!”.
And that is how we came to have three of the exact same stuffed whales.
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