I Should've Known Better

I had good intentions. AJ needed some gloves to wear at recess. His class goes outside to play at school even if it’s cold outside. He had complained of cold hands to his teachers on a couple of occasions. So I asked AJ if he really wanted gloves and if he would wear them if he had some. He told me that he did want gloves: black gloves, with Spiderman, and this size (he held up his hands).

I had, in fact, recently seen Spiderman gloves several places in town. We had even purchased some gloves for the church’s “warm fuzzy” project last month. I was confident that we could find a pair of gloves for just a couple bucks. This could be a fun after school outing, I decided. WRONG!!!

We started out at the mall – I had seen “Spidey” gloves just two days prior at JCPenny – Sold out. A very nice manager lady even checked the stockroom for us after AJ explained to her in detail what he wanted. We checked other stores in the mall – no luck. Kohl’s didn’t have any. Every place we went had sold out of boys’ gloves or only had baby mittens. By the time we arrived at Target we were all tired and getting cranky. But lo and behold, they had gloves – Spiderman gloves, black Spiderman gloves!! AJ was really excited. I had him try them on and guess what, they were too big for his little hands.

He was fighting back tears and told me that he wanted to give up. I was fighting back my own tears seeing him so crushed. So we gave up on finding gloves that afternoon. It was time for an early dinner and early bedtime. Our unsuccessful search for gloves had left us all exhausted.

The next day after I dropped him off at school, I headed to one more place to look for gloves. A place AJ would not have wanted to go look for gloves for himself because he is a big 5½ year old. I went to Babies R Us. That’s right, the “baby store.” Immediately inside the front doors was a display of “clearance items” including hat & mitten sets. I put the quotation marks around the words clearance items because the markdowns at this store usually do not qualify as clearance in my (pocket) book.

But they had a set that would probably work. It had mittens instead of gloves, cost more than just a couple bucks, wasn’t black, nor did it have Spiderman. But I was willing to purchase them and thought if I put the right spin on the presentation, AJ just might find them acceptable. So I bought them and hid the "baby store" bag.

Does this picture say “Mission Accomplished”?

The mittens are almost too small. After all, AJ is a big 5½ year old and the mittens are a toddler size (he will never know). But they will work for the rest of winter. Next year we will be better prepared for cold weather. And I will think twice before taking the boys on an after school scavenger hunt for black Spiderman gloves in (insert AJ’s hand) this size.

Laura