Entertainment at the Mall

[caption id="attachment_4412" align="alignright" width="225" caption="Ben and Lotta at the mall play area."][/caption]

Last week boredom and coldness set in during Ben's school winter break.  We decided to go play at the mall.  (Ben wonders why is it called a mall?)  There we discovered Lotta is a fancy girl.  I was searching for a winter coat for Lotta, knowing that eventually winter will arrive in Wisconsin.  I went into a children's clothing store to quickly take a peek at the sale coats.  I looked over and there was Lotta standing by the jewelry display, bracelets completely covering her arms.  She was quite quite heartbroken to leave the bling in the store.  She could not understand how something so horrible could happen to her.

Also while we were at the mall, we ate a pretzel.  Love those mall pretzels.  As we were eating, I spotted a row of brightly colored candy dispensers.  I told Ben how there was a point when we were feeding Ellie a special no-sugar diet in hopes of shrinking her brain tumor (look how well that worked out).  After her tumor had grown, instead of shrunk, after

Eating pretzels at the mall.

months of dissuading Ellie from eating things like beautiful cakes with frinkles (how she pronounced sprinkles), my sister suggested we chuck it all and go to McDonald's.  But, I digress, one day Ellie and I were playing at the mall and we came upon the brightly colored candy dispensers.   For each candy dispenser, Ellie and I would pretend to put our money in, turn the handle and eat our delicious candy.  In one of the dispensers there was an actual not-pretend but real candy, my heart skipped a beat as Ellie popped that piece right into her mouth.  I am a stickler for rules, so even that one small piece made it seem as if everything were ruined.

I realize this is not the most entertaining story.  Ben loves stories, so when I shared this one with him, he laughed and loved that Ellie just popped that sucker in before I could stop her.  Inspired me to keep blogging, even if just to keep these stories documented, if nothing else, for his enjoyment.