The Mall. It's Not Just for Shopping

The Little Man has been surprising us lately with his fascination with music. Constantly he is in song. He sings the ABC's, The Itsy Bitsy Spider, Rain, Rain Go Away (I don't know the name of that song), some Bumble Bee song, another song I don't know the name of that has "Down Down Baby, Down by the Roller Coaster..." in it, and then sometimes he sings just about what he is looking at, doing, or feeling at that particular moment. It's all fun and happy.

In addition to singing, he also has a few new dance moves he breaks out when the rhythm catches him just right. Sometimes, the song is on the radio we have playing in the house, or in the car. Other times, a song comes on TV that catches his fancy and he'll start jammin' out in the living room. Even in the playroom at times he'll turn on a toy that makes music and practice his latest moves. He reserved the best moves for tonight, though, as we walked the mall after dinner.

He and The Girl were running out ahead of us in the mall. Since we had eaten too much at dinner and were tired from a day filled with nothing, Scott and I just let them go. Lanie loves to play the game "Step on a Crack and Break your Momma's Back" just about everywhere we go. If there are lines in the carpet/tiles or cracks in the cement she's got just what she needs to keep herself busy. Tonight, there was a line of different colored tiles about every 10-15 feet or so. Just to up the ante, she wanted to be running THEN jump over what she was calling the "Hot Lava".

Pax was in on that action. Of course, he always took a few steps in the lava before making in over, or he jumped and landed in the lava with just a few steps left. Either way, had it been real lava, our boy never made it past the first test. He didn't care. In his mind's eye, he made it across every time with room to spare.

As our children raced further and further in front of us, bounding across deep rivers of molten rock, they giggled and cheered as they continued their success down the mall. Up until now, many of the stores we had passed were very quiet boutique types or furniture/decor stores. Then we got to the Abercrombie & Fitch store.

Pax stopped dead in his tracks, right in the middle of a river of lava. I thought it was the overpowering scent of cologne that made him lose his breath, but I was wrong. It was the music. The beat was too enticing and The Little Man was weak to it's power. He turned from Indiana Jones to a junior Michael Jackson (think Thriller days, not anything recent) right in front of our eyes. Lanie wasn't too far behind with the dance moves.

All the lava in the world couldn't stop my two from getting their groove on at the mall. After about 20 seconds they were off again jumping the mighty rivers of Mall Lava. From that point on, there were about 3 more stores that offered very loud music pouring from their doors.

We got a performance each time.

I've never been to the mall, not bought anything, yet felt so happy when I left.