Outlet Mall

Last Friday, we went to the outlet mall with Jimmy and his mom. (Jimmy is one of Sydney's friends from day care and his mom works with me. Jimmy is about a year younger than Sydney.) I forgot to take my camera with me on that day, so I have no pictures of the outlet mall with Jimmy, but I think Sydney had a good time because last night when I asked her what she wanted to do today, she said, "I wanna go to the outlet mall."

It's one of the first times she's given me a real answer to that question, so of course we had to go. I also asked her if she wanted to take a friend and she immediately thought of Peter, whom we hadn't seen in over two weeks since he'd been in New Jersey.

We called and invited Peter and, of course, we had to explain what makes the outlet mall so very exciting. I'm sure most people think of shopping when they think of the mall. Sydney thinks of rides.

The Hazens couldn't stay long -- Mrs. Hazen had a dentist appointment, but Sydney and Peter got to ride the hot dog truck a couple of times, taking turns driving before they had to go.

After the Hazens left, Sydney rode several other rides. At one point, as I was feeding Jack a bottle, Sydney had to come get quarters from me, take them, climb into the ride and put the quarters in the ride herself and press the button to start the ride, all while I looked on. I was impressed with her level of independence, and pleased to note that she totally gets that it takes two quarters to start the rides at the outlet mall.

This matters because I intend to start a dollar a week allowance when she turns three. I think there are a lot of things in this world that I will only do if someone pays me and it seems unfair to expect a child to do everything for free. To me that's not bribery, it's economics. I plan on giving Sydney a dollar in quarters (since the outlet mall has taught her that quarters are valuable) every week no matter what and offering bonus amounts for more difficult chores, especially as she gets older. I also like the idea of an allowance because it brings with it the option of implementing fines in place of spanking or time-outs.

So that's really why I love taking Sydney to the outlet mall. It teaches her the value of money.





As we were leaving, Sydney found the gates that they use to close off the outlet mall at night. In previous visits, these gates have allowed Sydney to become a lion at a zoo. This visit, though, the gate was part of Prince John's backyard.


If you don't know what that means, maybe this will jar your memory:

Remember in Disney's Robin Hood (which Sydney is still obsessed with) when Skippy the rabbit shoots the arrow and it goes into the castle courtyard and one of the other children says, "Uh-oh. Now you've done it. Right in Prince John's backyard." Skippy goes after the arrow and the other child wait at the gate.

I love that she is able to remember these kinds of details and reuse the vocabulary of the movie in context.