Mostly because we were perilously low on baby wipes, and our milk was due to expire today.
davner was very worried; he read an article online this morning about a WalMart greeter up in NY getting trampled to death by shoppers who couldn't bring themselves to wait for him to finish opening the doors at 5 am. Poor man. ;_; I reassured him that our K-Mart, in past years, had not been terribly insane on Black Friday, and in any event I wasn't going right as the store opened, so hopefully the frenzied lunatics would be long gone.
I sure as hell wasn't going anywhere near the mall OR Walmart, even before I heard about that death. No sale is worth fighting through that mess.
I was right. K-Mart was busy but endurable. I accomplished quite a bit. In addition to the strict necessities that brought me out in the first place, I got several gifts for
davner, a couple of small inexpensive toys for Mark and Jack, and I finally got that Backyardigans toybox I've been coveting for them. :D The only shopping I have left is Aiden and a single item for Dav.
Unfortunately, their children's DVD selection, as usual, was poor, and as with most big box stores, the children's books weren't too good either. So I'm working on an Amazon wishlist for the boys, so I can pass it on to the Grammas and any of my sibs that express interest. Mark's destroyed several of his favorite books, or at minimum removed several pages crucial to the plot. Those need replacing, eventually. And I'd like to get him some DVDs that don't involve the Backyardigans... Or art supplies. We need to work on Mark's hand-eye coordination, as well as his ability to grasp that crayons aren't for eating. ^_^; Handheld pod-shaped paint things seem like a good start.
A couple choices, though, are blatant Mommy nostalgia loosely concealed as presents for the kids. Such as The Electric Company DVD set... Or "Cookie Monster and the Cookie Tree", which seems to be out of print but is fortunately available for resale inexpensively. Or something that bubbled up from the depths of my childhood memories, "The Chicken Scandal at Number Seven Rue Petite". All I remember is that it involved a restaurant in Paris, a rival restaurant, a massive amount of chickens on the loose, and it was absolutely hilarious. ^_^ Alas, while Amazon recognizes the name, they have it listed as "unavailable, and unsure when we'll get more in stock". I'm assuming this means "So out of print we can't even find it for sale secondhand, sorry". ::sigh:: I'm also trying to find one of those dolls or stuffed bears that has zippers and buttons and so forth, to teach little kids how to use them. So far, no luck. Maybe Toys R us, after the holidays are over... Internet searches with such vague parameters are nearly impossible.
Next, I need to brave the depths of the upstairs closet and find the Christmas decorations. We're probably not putting up the tree until Christmas Eve, if at all, this year. Mark's developed a bad habit, these last two weeks, of climbing into the nook where we usually put the tree and getting himself stuck, while Mommy's in the bathroom or getting a bottle ready for Jack. We really have nowhere else to set the tree up, so I'm going to minimize the chance for Zodling-damage. I've got lots of other stuff that can be displayed out of even his most adventurous antics - or so I hope. ^_^;
I sure as hell wasn't going anywhere near the mall OR Walmart, even before I heard about that death. No sale is worth fighting through that mess.
I was right. K-Mart was busy but endurable. I accomplished quite a bit. In addition to the strict necessities that brought me out in the first place, I got several gifts for
Unfortunately, their children's DVD selection, as usual, was poor, and as with most big box stores, the children's books weren't too good either. So I'm working on an Amazon wishlist for the boys, so I can pass it on to the Grammas and any of my sibs that express interest. Mark's destroyed several of his favorite books, or at minimum removed several pages crucial to the plot. Those need replacing, eventually. And I'd like to get him some DVDs that don't involve the Backyardigans... Or art supplies. We need to work on Mark's hand-eye coordination, as well as his ability to grasp that crayons aren't for eating. ^_^; Handheld pod-shaped paint things seem like a good start.
A couple choices, though, are blatant Mommy nostalgia loosely concealed as presents for the kids. Such as The Electric Company DVD set... Or "Cookie Monster and the Cookie Tree", which seems to be out of print but is fortunately available for resale inexpensively. Or something that bubbled up from the depths of my childhood memories, "The Chicken Scandal at Number Seven Rue Petite". All I remember is that it involved a restaurant in Paris, a rival restaurant, a massive amount of chickens on the loose, and it was absolutely hilarious. ^_^ Alas, while Amazon recognizes the name, they have it listed as "unavailable, and unsure when we'll get more in stock". I'm assuming this means "So out of print we can't even find it for sale secondhand, sorry". ::sigh:: I'm also trying to find one of those dolls or stuffed bears that has zippers and buttons and so forth, to teach little kids how to use them. So far, no luck. Maybe Toys R us, after the holidays are over... Internet searches with such vague parameters are nearly impossible.
Next, I need to brave the depths of the upstairs closet and find the Christmas decorations. We're probably not putting up the tree until Christmas Eve, if at all, this year. Mark's developed a bad habit, these last two weeks, of climbing into the nook where we usually put the tree and getting himself stuck, while Mommy's in the bathroom or getting a bottle ready for Jack. We really have nowhere else to set the tree up, so I'm going to minimize the chance for Zodling-damage. I've got lots of other stuff that can be displayed out of even his most adventurous antics - or so I hope. ^_^;