Shopping With Cindy

Cindy recently had a birthday.  She is ten years old.  Ten at Casa is special.  No more naps, not that Cindy has actually taken a nap in a long time.  A special someone sent Cindy some birthday money.  I thought how fun it would be to take her to town and let her spend her birthday money.

I  thought through this long and hard because she is not always the most well-behaved child, but she usually does well one on one.  I had so much to do that week in between the groups leaving and Marc and I leaving.  The days were flying by and I thought I might not have time to take Cindy to town.  But through a series of unplanned events, I was doing all the errands on Saturday and decided I would take Cindy.  I watched her at devo and she was doing pretty good.  One time she did something and I thought we would go into her bad day mode.  I told her to behave and she would get a big surprise.  Cindy is usually one to test me and see, but she decided to be good.  After she fed the chickens, I told her what her surprise was.  She hurriedly ate breakfast and changed into town clothes and did her hair.

I explained we had to do all the errands first and then we would shop.  As we left, Cindy is hanging out of the car, waving at everyone.  Taking kids to run errands with me is not something I do very often. 

We got gas.  Then we went to cash a check.  Fortunately, that line was not too long.  When the man went into the vault and brought out stacks of 500 lempira bills, Cindy's eyes were huge.  I wasn't writing a check for that much money, though.

Saturday traffic and lines in Tegucigalpa was horrible.  Cindy waited patiently each place.  When we got to Price Smart, we had several things to do.  Another long line to pay the electricity and phone bills and then pick up a few things Dilcia left off of the first-of-the-month list.  Cindy pushed the cart.  She liked that.  One more thing, Office Depot, before we hit the mall.  As I paying at Office Depot, I asked if she wanted to eat first or shop first.  She said eat.  Then she said shop.  As we left Office Depot and started across the street to the mall, she said eat first.

I had to get some cash before I could treat her to lunch.  I stuck my card in the machine and out came two 500 lempira bills.  She liked that magic trick.  I told her she could choose anything in the food court.  She chose Popeye's.  So, we had fried chicken and french fries. 

Then, it was time to let the shopping begin.  I told her how much money she had.  We looked at shoes.  The pair she really liked was on sale and that she could buy those and then still buy clothes.  She wanted to try on the shoes and the clerk never came.  No shoes for Cindy.  She wasn't going to wait on the clerk.  We rode the escalator up one floor to the clothes.  She looked at shirts and jeans.  And dresses.  And skirts.  She tried on one outfit.  The shirt fit, the skirt didn't.  We looked some more.  At jeans and shirts.  At dresses.  At skirts.  And then the most beautiful jacket she had ever seen caught her eye.  A beautiful pink hooded jacket with Barbie on it.  She tried it on and her eyes lit up.  It didn't matter that if she bought the jacket, that is all she could buy.  That is what she really wanted.  And it was her money.  We purchased the beautiful pink hooded jacket with Barbie on it.  She walked out of the store, proudly carrying her bag.

Then she asked me for ice cream.  I bought her some.   I let her eat in the car.
When Marc got home she came running out saying she got to go to town with Terri.  When I left for the airport yesterday morning, there was Cindy wearing her brand new jacket. 

I had a delightful day with Cindy.  And she was beyond thrilled to pick out her own gift.

Terri