A Day at the Mall

We headed to Lenox Mall today. We both had a rough week at work so we decided to take it easy and goofed off at the mall to look for some Christmas presents. Hard to believe Christmas was not that far away. The weather was beautiful but a bit on the cool side. We dressed Sydney is a long-sleeve T-shirt and pink corduroy overall. She was a hit at the mall. Several passerbys smiled at her and commented that she was gorgeous. She was mobbed by the cosmetic sales staff at Bloomingdale's. One older lady asked to hold her. Sydney reached for her like an old friend. As the lady held her, we noticed that Sydney was swinging one of her legs playfully and was very relaxed. It was unusual since she had been pretty fussy lately around strangers. For the last 2 weeks or so, she had been crying hysterically when we dropped her off at the daycare center. She was starting to figure out that we were leaving her behind for several hours. But back to the cosmetic saleslady. She commented that Sydney knew that "an experienced mother was holding her." No sooner than those words had left her mouth, Sydney suddenly started wailing. She finally figured out that none of the faces smiling at her was familiar. The lady dashed over to Tracie to hand Sydney back to her. I smiled apologetically and wiped my baby's tears away.

"That'll teach the lady to brag!!" I thought to myself. Shame on me.

We decided that Sydney was getting hungry and was probably also ready for an afternoon nap. We had spent almost 2 hours at the mall already. Tracie made a fresh bottle of formula and fed Sydney on one of benches in the mall. Afterward, we headed to Banana Republic for Tracie to pick up one of the Christmas gifts. Sydney fell asleep in my arms while I plopped my lazy behind down on one of the chairs near the dressing rooms. She looked like an angel when she was sleeping. She looked peaceful. Many of the staff members stopped to admire her and complimented on how beautiful she was. I just figured out that I was a very popular person whenever I had Sydney with me. At this rate, I could befriend at least 1/4 of the staff at the mall. This could work to our advantage to get some great discounts. Hmmmm...I should spend more time at the mall with Sydney.

We finally left Banana Republic, and Tracie went off to Club Monaco while I tended to the baby. Sydney was still fast asleep. I was just having fun watching my baby sleep and people-watching at the same time. Suddenly, a little girl came up to me. Although she looked to be about 9 or 10, she was stunningly angelic-looking with dark brown eyes and cropped hair. She looked European. With a soft voice, as not to disturb the baby, she asked politely: "Excuse me. How old is she?"

I said, "She is about 7 months old."

"Oh, she is very beautiful." The little girl spoke with a slight accent. "What is her name?"

"Her name is Sydney," I said.

With that, she smiled and walked away to join her mother and another little girl a few feet away. It was sweet. I was proud to think that a beautiful girl like her would think that my little girl was beautiful. I wish I had thought to ask for her name and told her that she was also very beautiful. It made me feel good that I lived in the South, where, supposedly, people were very friendly. I even heard on the radio this week that Atlanta was voted as one of the friendliest cities in the country. If my encounter with this little girl was any indication, I guess the survey was correct.

After a few hours at the mall, we headed home. I had a good time. Although I didn't spend any time looking for something to buy for myself, I was glad that we managed to get a few Christmas presents picked out and Sydney received a lot of attention in the process. I smiled as I drove home at the memory of the few minutes we spent at Ann Taylor. While waiting on Tracie to shop, I was bored and decided to let Sydney try on some shoes. I placed a pair of ladies' burgundy high-heels on the couch and stood Sydney in them.

"Wow. Don't you look pretty in these shoes!" I said to Sydney.

I looked up to find a couple of customers and a couple of salesladies staring at us.

"Awwwwwww!!" they said in unison. I was embarassed and quickly put the shoes back on the rack.

One salesperson said: "Oh please, can I see her in those shoes one more time?"

Sydney struck again. She's going to be a star someday. She was eating up the attention, just grinning broadly at the small crowd gathering around her as she stood in those shoes again. She was showing off those two tiny bottom front teeth of hers. Frankly, I was enjoying the attention as much as she apparently did. Gosh, I was such a proud papa. Too bad Tracie wasn't around to share in the limelight.

We all chatted for a few minutes about Sydney's age, our origin, how tall she was, and all that good stuff. She was just looking around, oblivious to anything but the shoes she was "wearing" and the pacifier dangling from her overall. She just wanted to catch the pacifier and put it in her mouth in the midst of all the commotion. She didn't know she was somewhat of a celebrity at Ann Taylor. This was not the first time she had managed to pull together a small crowd to see her at this store. I hope it wouldn't be the last.

Sydney had a great day at the mall.