I took the three girls to Chapters today with Hanna’s birthday gift card. We were on a mission to find a couple of books of Hanna’s choosing that she would own, take care of and read until the covers were so well-loved they’d barely be held together by their binding.

Unfortunately, Chapters offers more than just books and it was nearly impossible to drag the kids away from the toys, the bookmarks, puppet theatres, train sets and piggy banks to change their focus back to book buying.

We had a second problem. Ellie did not have a gift card but felt totally left out of the shopping experience that her sister was absolutely loving. I made the mistake of telling Ellie, she too could choose something and in being distracted for a split second by the baby, neglected to tell her to select a very small item.

The first thing Ellie chose was an Inuit inspired key cover. I couldn’t figure out why she would ever need or want a key cover given she doesn’t own a set of keys, we have keyless entry into our home and our Inuit relatives haven’t talked to us since…I don’t know when. It was only $3 so I thought I best agree to the key cover. She tried to trade up to a pink headband which I allowed, all the while trying to steer her towards looking at the books. A crazy thought—books in a bookstore.

Hanna had her heart set on a black, felt top hat with a white rabbit inside.

I suggested we find a book about how to do magic tricks but she was drooling on the bunny and stroking it in front of the staff almost enveloping it in its entirety. It would be difficult to strip Lennie of the hat and politely return him to his woodland friends on the shelf.

Hanna: Hey Mom! Can we get The Paper bag Princess?

Finally a book, except, we already have that one. Try again.

The next several minutes was an exercise in trying mommy’s patience while the girls did nothing but wander from aisle to aisle pointing out all of the books we already have, rather than searching out a book we didn’t.

Ellie toggled back and forth between the totem pole thing, the headband and a $200 art easel that was quickly returned to the original spot on the floor.

We left with a key cover and a bunny in a hat.

Happy Reading!