'Shopping is a girls favorite thing to do!!`

While the Hubs was napping yesterday morning I took the kids and ran a few errands, knowing that us being gone means more peaceful sleep I asked if there was anywhere the kids wanted to go to kill some time.  Bean ripped out with 'Lets go to the mall, shopping is a girls favorite thing to do!!' with hand pumps in the air.  At this point my mind reeled and if I wasn't more alert would have driven us off the road. Who is this child sitting in the back seat and where did she learn that??

As Bean popped out with shopping is a girls favorite thing to do, my first thought was I had failed her. Somewhere in the universe a feminist was loosing her wings, I should just put her in a I am too pretty to do homework tee shirt and be done with it. This isn't the case though and obviously I slightly over reacted in my mind before, thankfully my mouth decided to respond. The mall didn't sound like a horrid idea and we could continue our chat as we wandered the mall. As we walked the mall we talked about what Bean thought the mall and shopping would make it the favorite thing for a girl. We started with is it your favorite thing, her response was sometimes when you buy me stuff, with that sweet smile that said buy me stuff.  There was nothing in our conversation that could point me to where this idea came from, besides TV and friends. Eventually I shrugged my shoulders reminded her of all the other great things she likes doing and we started talking about what things she liked at the mall.

There were some benefits to our mall wander that I found interesting.  Bean has a really fun and funky style and hanging at the mall with her for an hour really helped me get a better idea of her likes and dislikes. She doesn't like much and was really particular about the style of this or that and how should would wear it.  The thing that kind of bothered me the most was her over interest in one particular store and that everything in that store was, the best, except one dress. I swear she had looked at other similar clothes in other stores and didn't like the clothes, but it was in THE STORE.  We started talking about how similar the clothes looked and that if she only had x amount of dollars and could buy something similar to what she wanted in this store, but cheaper somewhere else would she do it?  This caused a lot of thought and Bean said she would get back to me. Eventually she agreed that the cheaper store would be better, I had a little sign of relief smart shopping can never be learned too early.

Also with us on this mall walk about was Chicken and he is defiantly already living up to the boys don't want to shop stereotype, unless it was Boise State gear, Star Wars or Angry birds. As we wandered  from store to store he showed interest but you could tell he was not as particular and didn't want to look so much as buy and leave.  The great thing about him on this walk was the endless chatting, thought at times if makes me want to sell him, letting him prattle gives me a real chance to know where he is at in the world.

I don't think I am done talking to Bean about shopping and girls favorite things to do, but I do have a better idea of where she and Chicken are at.