July 29, 2009

Today was a very 1995 kind of day. Yesterday, Ariel showed up at our house with a new beanie baby skunk. Alex was enamored. He HAD to have one too. He even offered to pay for it, and that's a big deal. He won't even shell out $.89 for the nerd ropes he's always begging for at the grocery store.

So after my bike ride (and the kid's morning at the gym) we started our quest for Skunkers. Our first stop was Grandrabbits, which does not carry beanie babies. They did, however, have three other skunks in various sizes and Adam was happy with a similarly sized non-branded one. Alex was not.

Next stop, Hallmark. Hallmark had beanie babies, but not that beanie baby.

Intermission - we met Ellen at for Indian lunch. I'm not sure Ariel has ever had Indian, but she was game. She ate all her lentils, some rice and 4 meatballs. She would not try her spinach or fried veggies and did not care for the rice pudding or naan. She also drank about 17 glasses of water, which will become important later.



After lunch, we drove out to the mall for more skunk hunting. We first tried Fuzziwigs, but they were closed for a quick remodel. Next, we tried Hallmark, which much like the first had beanie babies, but not that beanie baby. And then, a desparate attempt at Justice (thank gawd I don't have a girl) but they only carry webkinz.

After exausted all possibilities, we played at the dinosaurs. Well, Adam and Ariel played, Alex had to sit next to me because he refused to follow instructions or rules. Which made it hard for me to want to continue on our quest.

On the way out of the mall, we made a pit stop and I suggested to Ariel that she check if she had to pee. She threw a full blown tantrum on the potty, going on way longer than I thought possible, especially for maintaing such a stiff body in a seated position. She finally stopped, but whimpered "Mommy" the whole way out of the mall. She didn't fall asleep in the car, but she crashed pretty quickly at home.

After Ariel left, we checked Walgreens on the way to swimming. They seem to carry TY animals, but not beanie babies. And then I gave up. I showed Alex we could order Skunkers off Amazon for only $12 including shipping or give up. He wanted to go back to the store that Becky bought the original Skunkers from, which while a logical idea, I had no desire to drive 300 miles to and from Glenwood for a $6 toy. Though Alex told me he didn't care how far it was.

But joy of joys, Grandpa found Skunkers and now the world, circa 1995, can go on.