Cheap Thrills

When I woke up this morning to gray skies and the drizzlies, I realized we were in for day two of rainy weather. Much to my surprise, the sun started to peek out a little in the afternoon so I was desperate to get out and go somewhere.

Unfortunately, I had no idea where. My first thought was the mall since there's a children's play area, but I'm a little leary about going there so soon after Grace's illness since I'm convinced that's where she picked up whatever bug made her sick for a week. After that thought, I had nothing, so I googled 'kid friendly activities in Jacksonville'. But all the suggestions I found were either outdoor related or cost money. It was still too wet for any outdoor activities and I really wanted to find some free fun.

Then it hit me. Toys'R'Us! What kid doesn't like going to Toys'R'Us? We'd look at all the toys and maybe try out any stuff they had on display then go home after having thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, all without buying a thing.

I should've known better.

All the toys she looked at, she wanted, and if I didn't give it to her she would start screaming. At one point our cart had a Little People's Farm play set, a Little People's Noah's Ark play set, three board books, a pack of crayons, a life size puzzle of Hello Kitty, two stuffed animals, alphabet blocks, some bubbles, beach toys, and a bouncing ball.

There was no way I was going to get all that, but I had a little trick that has worked like a charm before. When we go to the store and Grace gets attached to something I have no intention of buying, we put it back on the shelf and say 'bye-bye' to it. She'll wave and sometimes even give it a flying kiss and that'll be the end of that. I was confident it would work just as easily today as it has before.

It didn't.

She cried and cried as we put all of the toys back. I was only slightly embarrassed at the cry fest since I'm sure lots of kids have had meltdowns at Toys'R'Us. It's just hard when it's your kid and no one else's kid is acting up. I finally gave in and bought the mini bubbles, beach toys, and bouncing ball since we could get use out of those things.

In the end, my free afternoon of fun actually cost $8. Oh well.