Little Man is Disqualified

It's ended up being a busy work weekend for my husband, so I thought maybe, since Little Man thinks pirates are cool and treasure hunts are fun, that the boys and I could treasure hunt together. We'd make a weekend of it, driving around, enjoying the fall colors, stopping at parks for play and picnic breaks...nothing but fun, right? Let's just call this another delusional moment. After three visits, Little Man was officially disqualified.

We stopped at Sheepy Yarn Shop and the Yarnery yesterday. We were well fed and rested so I thought we were up to the task. At Sheepy Yarn Shop, we started off okay and ran into my first blogger of the hunt, Stephania. It was great to talk with her, and we found the answer to the clue. With that done, I tried to do a little shopping, but suddenly Little Man went from just a little squirelly to full melt down mode in about 30 seconds. Here's where I give MAJOR kudos to the employees. They came with stickers and a pirate hat!!! I was impressed. I love shops where the employees understand that no matter how great a mom I am or how great my kid is, he is only three and will have moments. So I didn't feel too bad when I checked out with two skeins of Blue Sky DK weight and saw these:


Could you resist them? I didn't think so. So I grabbed some size ones, thinking, oh... $12 or so. She rung me up. The price for the needles? $27!!!! At this point, Little Man needed to leave, now. So I said the heck with it, signed, and left. They better be good needles. But, yarn store ladies...you rocked, and I don't feel bad about giving you my money. Thanks for being so cool!

The Yarnery was no problem. We've been there before and they have toys. We found the treasure (a $61 skein of Buffalo Gold, yikes!) and had fun. End of Friday's treasure hunt.

So this morning, I thought we'd head out to Three Kittens. We'd had a good nights sleep and full breakfast, so I thought we'd be okay. As soon as we walked in, we picked up our clue and went to look for the yarn. Who'd we run into but some more of my favorite bloggers: Lisa D, Chris , Amy and Jeanne ( once again I didn't get a chance to introduce myself to her). The reason? Little Man pretty much went nuts. I think it was the combination of meeting new friends and the literal maze of yarn. (I'm not kidding either, they had a lot of yarn!) Now I usually avoid taking him to yarn shops unless it's an "in and out" kind of trip. There's a lot to look at and he can get overstimulated pretty quick. But when we do go, I have two big yarn store rules. He knows them well:

No running
No playing with yarn.

Both were broken.

He ran away. We had a talk, regrouped and it was okay. We found the treasure and filled out our card. He ran and hid, which freaked me out because I'm serious about the maze thing. The store is awesome but I could't see where he went and thought he'd run out the store. He came back, I calmed down and we regrouped. I knew it was time to go, but wanted to say goodbye to the bloggers. Little Man said goodbye in monkey (more on that another post - Lisa is fluent in monkey, by the way:-) and threw yarn at them. With that, I made a quick purchase of a magazine because I couldn't bring all that craziness into the store without spending some money for them, and we left.

Once we were back in the car I reviewed the rules, we discussed that both had been severely broken, and that he was hereby disqualified from the Treasure Hunt.

We made it home and met up with my husband for lunch, and discussed whether or not I wanted to keep going with this. Running all over the metro with two kids is not the easiest, but I never get the chance to visit other shops and this was a good excuse. So, since it was a nice day we decided to go for a little drive. We buzzed out to Amazing Threads, where I finally got to meet Jeanne. The guys hung out in the car and parking lot, and I tried to make it quick at this stop since it was not a very exciting parking lot. But I did find yarn for Little Man's Christmas sweater (some nice chunky Cascade) and we hit the road again.

Next stop was Coldwater Collaborative in Excelsior. This is one of our favorite "edge of the metro" destinations. It's got a great park at the lake which Little Man loves. Knittybaby and I popped into the shop, said hi to Deb and the bloggers again (we seemed to be on the same schedule), bought some gifts for Secret Pal 9, and headed down to the park. We enjoyed the beautiful weather and the lake for a little longer and it was back to the city to call it a day. When I got home there was a message from Amazing Threads; I won a door prize!!!

There are two more shops left to go. We'll see if I make it tomorrow. Seven yarn shops in one weekend is alot, and as much as I love visiting them all, I hate spending a day driving all over the metro area. I hardly ever leave Minneapolis/St. Paul, and when I do that usually means getting out the map and dealing with the weird ways that 'burbs have their roads designed. I always miss my turn. Plus Little Man really needs a day home to relax tomorrow, so we'll see what happens. Even if I don't finish the whole treasure hunt, I had fun and got to visit some new shops. Although the chance at that grand prize is so tempting (not that I'd win:-)

Thanks for all the comments on the socks and sleep! A few responses:

The yarn is Mielenweit Fun and Stripes. Easy to knit, few snags.

The topic of co-sleeping always brings up some interesting questions for those who either are new to it or have never heard much of it. I knew nothing about it before we had kids, and when a collegue of mine told me they co-slept with their kids I know I had tons of questions. The Dr. Sears Co-sleeping FAQs addresses a lot of those questions, such as how to maintain privacy as a couple, how to move an older child into their own bed, and one of the most important, how to co-sleep safely. I know every family is different and eventually finds what works best for them, which is the important thing. But, if you're a new parent, or a new grandparent who has a child co-sleeping with their baby (I know our folks had questions) or just curious about it, it's some good information to have.

Knittybaby is definitely a "Nosy Rosy!" He wants to be in the middle of it all the time! What a cute way to put it:-)

Well, the boys are both fast asleep. I'm off to enjoy some movie and knitting time....

Husband here still waiting to watch the movie 20 minutes later! aohhhhh (yawn)