Take Two

Even though our last furniture shopping excursion was an adventure I never wanted to repeat, necessity forced Jim and I to take another stab at the two-toddlers-in-tow shopping experience.  But this time, I was ready.  Instead of coming empty handed, I packed an arsenal of snacks (and hoped nobody considered it overly gauche to leave a trail of Kix in our wake).  Instead of letting them run amok among the ottomans and entertainment centers, we buckled them into their stroller and refused to listen to their fervent pleas for release.  Instead of going at bedtime, we went at naptime…I know, I know, not our smartest move.  But we were squeezed for time and hoped sufficient amounts of sugary cereal would spike their energy levels into forgetting about their normal naptime. 

All in all, it was a successful trip.  We went to two different locations, and it wasn’t until halfway through the second store that the girls hit their internal good behavior quota and started accompanying their longing stares out the windows with insistent (and loud) whines to “GO!  GO!  GO!”  I don’t blame the poor things – it’s not like examining the umpteenth couch for the umpteenth time has a lot of intrinsic interest to anybody, let alone a toddler.    

About two minutes after we piled into the car following our purchase of a sofa set, I looked in the backseat and saw that Becky had already called it quits:

Susie, on the other hand, was more contemplative:

She subsequently requested some reading material, and engrossed herself in a furniture brochure:

I can only assume that Becky finds shopping just as exhausting as I do, and Susie somehow inherited my mother’s endless enthusiasm for sales.  Maybe next time I’ll send Susie into the store to charm the salesman into a good deal, while Becky and I nap in the car!