Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Pajama Mamas

There's a clandestine, covert operation happening here in our local Target parking lot.  I call it Mission: Pajama Mamas.

Pajama-clad mamas and their jammies-wearin' babes are meeting near shopping cart return areas and swapping small amounts of cash for large amounts of toys.

It's secret, stealthy, underground, and undercover.  This, my friends, is the tough life of the black market of toy-trading.

Today Yours Truly took part.  And I wore my pajamas.  You see, wildly-printed pants come in useful at a time like this.

We can spot one another from at least 10 empty parking spaces.  Our eyes meet, we glance over our shoulders, and we walk forward with our kids slung snugly on our hips for safety.

But, unlike the jaded drug dealers who are probably out there also, we're boisterous and giddy when we meet, as one mama is just as thrilled to get a new toy as her child is, and the other mama is even more thrilled to see a few extra bucks come back into her wallet.

One must bring exact cash for these sorts of endeavors, and I admit that I counted out all coins.  She didn't seem to mind, and she believed me that the little baggie I brought contained $7 worth.

In an instant, it was over.  Our new-to-us toy was sitting proudly on the backseat.  In my rear view mirror, I watched as Liam's little arms and hands tried to reach out to the new toy on the entire ride home.  So cute!

Our new, $7 find today was this Little People Zoo, which currently retails for $57.39 at Sears.com.   Look closely and you can see a blurry, wiggly little boy hand, reaching out to play.  :)


And what's great about this is that all the animals from Liam's farm and Noah's Arc can all travel between ecosystems.  Today, as you can see, Liam had a whole community set up, complete with various modes of transportation for the humans, including a truck, train, bus, boat, and wheelchair.  And today I swear I heard one of the Little People yell, "Field trip!!"


Score one for this pajama-mama!  :)