Alarms and Escalators


Today was a day of high adventure for Nils. One of his favorite things to do is to go to the store. We go to the grocery store fairly often- it is equivalent to a day at Great America for this 5 year old.
Well, today I decided to try something a little different- going to the store and not putting him in a shopping cart. We went to Old Time Pottery. I was looking for an inexpensive set of sheets. One item, not a cartful of things. Nils could hold my hand and everything would go smoothly. We walked into the store, and he was just fascinated by everything he saw. He started making comments.

"Oh, water, " as we passed a decorative fountain.
" We're going to get some sheets."
"Oh, look." Fuzzy pillows were pretty cool to see and feel.
" There are flowers on it." We were examining a variety of sheets, and I was trying to match a fitted sheet to a flat sheet. Nils was standing next to me talking about the sheets. He then decided to walk down the aisle behind us.

"Nils, where are you going?" I stood and looked at him. He gave me that special smile that usually means he knows he's doing something that he shouldn't do. He took off. He was around the corner very quickly. I decided to go straight to the next aisle to cut him off. I didn't see him. As I rounded a corner, I heard an alarm. Then I saw him, backing away from an emergency exit door. Of course there had to be a door there. I mean, after all, if there wasn't a door for Nils to try to open, how could it be called a fun place to shop? I grabbed his hand, and tried to be stern, but I ended up laughing. It was a classic Nils stunt! I went back to the sheets, and waited for the fire department to show up. After a few minutes, some store employee made his way back there and looked at us. No questions, no fire department, no evil looks.

We made our way to the cash register. "I pushed the door, " Nils informed the clerk.
All the way to the car- "I pushed the door."
"I know , Nils. You have to stay by Melody in the store. No running away from me."

O.k. So we went home, right? No. I decided to try another new thing. Why not be really brave and go to the mall?

The mall was way cooler than Old Time Pottery. There were so many fascinating things to see. A machine full of Care Bears. Another machine with movies in it. I let him push buttons, but there was no way I was going to put money in those machines. We went to the Food Court and ate french fries and drank pop. Amazingly, he sat at the table and didn't try to run everywhere. We made a big production of throwing things away in the very big trash can. Then we had to try the escalator. The stairs were going up! It was so cool! We saw the Aqua Massage machines spraying water, we went down the glass elevator, we went to the jewelry store and talked to my friend Tracy. Nils tried to open the door to go behind the jewelry counter- no alarms went off. We went to a picture booth. I let him press buttons in there, and we watched the machine sketch our picture. We rode one last time up and down the escalator, and then left.

What a morning! All the way home Nils was talking.

"We went down the stairs."
"We ate french fries."
" I threw it in the garbage."
"No running. Hold Melody's hand."
"We took a picture."

He obviously had a great time, and so did I. It really is amazing to me to watch him react to things. Small, simple things are so huge to him. Nils always fascinates me- the way his mind works, the things he says, the things he remembers. It is days like these that make me truly thankful that he is a part of my life. It's funny, well, maybe not funny....it's just the way God works, I guess. The more I try to help Nils and teach him things, the more he teaches me. And the goodness and sovereignty of God becomes even more evident.