Going shopping with Boy Lacer

Chattering Charlie and Lola edited

Originally uploaded by lacerslife

Boy Lacer loves shopping, but it’s not the shops so much, as in shops are the only places were he regularly encounters lifts and he loves lifts. If I tell him we’re going shopping, he then questions me intently about where we’re going and which sort of lifts there’ll be. And if we go shopping and we don’t go in enough shops (read enough lifts), he is not happy!

So, today we went shopping with some birthday money, first up was the toy shop Early Learning Centre, but the early bird catches the little boy with lots of money to spend, Early Learning Centre didn’t open on the dot of 9.30am but the nearby department store did, so we went up to their toy department (lift number one, glass walled) and brought the Chattering Charlie and Lola, which you can see in the video I’ve embedded above (I’ve always quite fancied the WordPress video add-in but it’s way too expensive for what would probably be very little use (or even a lot of use), so thanks to Flickr, I can now embed up to two videos a month! So, for the curious you can hear what me and Boy Lacer sound like and me shockingly muddle up Charlie and Lola’s names). The Chattering Charlie and Lola is rather cool, they say loads of things and the best bit was the look on Boy Lacer’s face when he saw it! He also brought a small train from Thomas the Tank Engine. Then back down to Early Learning Centre, to buy some figurines from Timmy Time (my son influenced by CBeebies, no of course not!) and then back up to the bookshop (lift number two, another glass walled but larger lift) to buy some books. The bookshop is Waterstones and oh no Waterstones, please, what have you done? Unless I was missing something pretty significant, the picture book section is now down to one bookcase! And this is a large bookshop, in a large town, in a major shopping destination, in an area where literally (and I mean literally), there are so many young children, the council is struggling to build schools quick enough and the picture book section is down to one bookcase. I’ve noticed their selection had been shrinking a bit but now the remaining tables were the books had been, are now stocking a multitude of holiday annuals, yes I know it’s Christmas (in three months) but don’t they think people might like a better selection of picture books for their kids between now and then and personally I always buy way more picture books at Christmas than annuals. Sigh, there is another bookshop in town, although another chain and a bit out of the way, it just disappoints me when a large chain bookshop, it’s very presence almost certainly preventing the existence of a smaller independent bookstore, can’t even do it properly, oh and their craft book section has shrunk to and the craft books they do stock are rubbish! Moan about Waterstones over. Boy Lacer did manage to find three books to buy, even despite the limited selection, he brought the Cow That Laid an Egg, a story we already knew but didn’t have a copy of, a Winnie the Witch collection and Five Minutes Peace, a Large Family book, by Jill Murphy, which I absolutely adore, all poor Mrs. Large wants is five minutes peace from her kids, I feel her pain. So book buying done, it was over to John Lewis, a quick trip up to the new Christmas floor (I don’t object to Christmas in October too much) (lift number three, a window out onto the road outside), which is sadly smaller this year but had a lovely collection of ‘handmade’ style ornaments which were an inspiration for my ornament making. Then down to Waitrose before up to ground level again (lift number four, a small tubular lift).

It was a nice shopping trip and as much as I have a hard time remembering now that Boy Lacer is 4, as he really is only 4 chronologically and is still developmentally about 3, what was noticeable this year, was unlike previous years where you’d take him to a toy shop or a book shop with money and say “What do you want to buy”, he wouldn’t have a clue, this time he definitely knew, which was good.