One of the reasons I booked our flight on the airline I'm currently very mad at is that they have DirectTV at every seat. Of course we won't let Lucas watch TV the entire time but it will serve as a good distraction for at least part of our cross-country journey. Yesterday afternoon I realized that while Abel and I will use our ipod ear buds, Lucas needed his own set of headphones.
Where in the world do I find toddler-sized headphones, I wondered. I dashed off a quick e-mail to our trusty parent listserv. Help! Need toddler headphones! With no answers from that always-helpful-group, I realized Target, Target would be the answer. I decided to forgo my weekly nap and head to Target. I needed to stop by there anyway to pick up a few cheap toys to help distract Lucas on the plane and some Annie's Cheddar Bunnies (the best snack ever!!!) which are almost $1 cheaper at Target than Safeway.
I don't know why I thought child-sized headphones were such an unusual thing--there were several options at Target. I opted for the $17.99 Sony version (which was on sale from $21.99) over the $14.99 version-of-a-brand-I-didn't-recognize. Unfortunately I'm one of those people who thinks more expensive = higher quality.
Currently in the Target $1 bins are some cute board books including Sesame Street books on counting, shapes and ABCs and Halloween books. I picked up 6 board books for $6. Yeah, they're fairly lame but if we leave one behind somewhere it won't bother me in the least.
When I got to the register did I have in my cart only the headphones, Cheddar Bunnies and board books? Oh no. I had lots and lots more, taking my approximately $26 shopping trip up to $111.
The Law of Target was in full effect yesterday. I blame it on the fact that this was my first Target run in ages without a bored toddler in the cart. I was all alone and free to linger, compare, walk by something then go back! It was heaven!
When I got home I greedily took everything out of the bags to admire. I put out my new door mat (hey, I needed a new door mat!), admired the cute birthday gifts for my niece (they were on clearance! Her birthday is fast-approaching at the end of the month!) and was all set to check out those headphones.
Wait? Where were the headphones?
Not in any of the bags. Not in my trunk. But, still showing up on my receipt.
UGH!!!
I called and explained that I purchased and paid for headphones yet they were not to be found in any of my bags. Come on back and pick them up, I was cheerily told.
UGH.
Back in the car, drive to Target, park, walk to Customer Service, explain again.
Now, wouldn't you think that my cashier, upon finding that she didn't give me the bag with the headphones, would have taken that bag to Customer Service where it would have sat, waiting for me to come back and get it? Wouldn't that make sense?
Apparently no.
When I got there I had to walk through the entire store (with more things calling out to me--buy me! buy me!--I resisted) to the audio department to get another set of headphones and bring them back to customer service where they rang them up as a return/exchange (which also doesn't make much sense to me).
Headphones secured, I got back in the car and drove home to pick up Lucas from the babysitter feeling totally annoyed about the whole thing.
After dinner when I plugged them into my ipod for Lucas, the look of pure delight on his face was worth every second of aggravation. He loved them. He called them "MY telephones!" and danced all around the dining room. On a slow song he closed his eyes and swayed just a bit with the most fantastic little smile.
Man do I love those headphones!
P.S. Oh, Abel, I'm totally exaggerating. I only spent like, um, $75 at Target. Oh, I mean, only $50. Yeah, only $50.
I do the same thing at Target. I intend to only get one or two things but leave with a cart full. I do the same thing at Walmart, Costco, pretty much wherever I shop.
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