Weekend afternoons have become great ‘Daddy Time’ for Noah and I to hang out. Today was no exception as we embarked on a very typical set of errands which just barely necessary but are more a result of Noah’s desire to visit his favorite places.
First Stop: The ‘Big’ Car Wash
Noah loves the car wash. He generally gives us two to choose from, Rossmoor Car Wash (aka ‘The Big Car Wash’) and the Mobil Gas Station on Los Alamitos (aka ‘The Little Car Wash’). Today, it was the Big Car Wash.
Noah’s interest in the Big Car Wash is driven, for the most part, by his desire to increase his ever-expanding fleet of toy cars. The car wash people are smart in that they fill their lobby with lots of stuff that you might be interested in, and a display of cars that Noah is definitely interested in. A car wash typically ends up costing us about $30 by the time we buy Noah’s car, a Pepsi for Daddy and pay for the car wash and the tip. So, we got the car washed and we moved on to the next stop.
Next Stop: Baskin Robbins
Almost from the moment we got back in the car after the car wash, Noah demanded some of his favorit ice cream: Wild and Reckless flavor at Baskin Robbins with rainbow sprinkles! I wasn’t up for any ice cream today, but thanks to the chain-store shopping centers that have popped up everywhere, a Starbucks is never far away. In fact, at the Rossmoor center in Los Alamitos, there is a Baskin Robbins/Togo’s store right next to, you guessed it, a Starbucks.
Much to the delight of the patrons at Starbucks, Noah sat there wearing his Chicago Bears hat (similar to his Daddy’s hat) eating his ice cream while Daddy ordered a Grande Latte. Oh, my God, have we become the classic suburban family. Noah sacked his entire ice cream in no time flat and we were off to the next, and possibly most important stop: Target!
Target
For anyone who knows him, Noah’s absolutely favorite place to go is Target. He likes to go there for, you guessed it, to purchase more toy cars. A typically trip includes a race to the Matchbox aisle, some sugar cookies from the cafe and, sometmes, the purchase of other things that we may need.
Noah also likes to try to scan his purchases to ensure the proper pricing (or, maybe just to hear the scanner thingy beep) but he is not quite tall enough for it as you can see from the picture. In any case, with Matchbox cars in hand we proceeded to the checkout and skipped the sugar cookies this time because we had just come from the ice cream store.
Back Home
On most normal weekend days, our trip would also include a stop at Islands for chicken strips and french fries (we really do feed him a healthier diet than is apparent from this article, no really we do!!).
However, today, we were running a little late and Noah had not had his nap for the day and the Bears game was still on (the Bears won in a low-scoring defensive struggle). Noah, of course, didn’t nap but our little excursion did burn off some energy and made for a fun and somewhat productive errand outing. It’s the little things that make the weekends something to look forward to!