The Shopping Companion

“Shopping is a woman thing.  It's a contact sport like football.  Women enjoy the scrimmage, the noisy crowds, the danger of being trampled to death, and the ecstasy of the purchase”.  - Erma Bombeck

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Dear Riddhie,

Continuing the pattern from the last few posts, I shall talk about things you did and the way you went about your day in the first few weeks after we arrived here in the US. I guess you would have had a look at the hundreds of pictures that your mother and I clicked of you while we were here by now. I guess this became your mother’s primary pastime as she went about her activities in a day.

 

Till the time, we moved into an apartment, we were living in a Marriot property near the Newark airport which incidentally also had a shuttle service to the Jersey Garden Mall. This mall, let me add, was otherwise also a stone’s throw away and one could easily walk to it from where we stayed provided one was willing to battle the heat and the summer Sun during the day.  

With me being sucked into my daily routine at work and your mom spared of any household chores, thanks to the room service attendants, she suddenly had a lot of extra time at her hands. Her restricted access to her periphery because of her not driving and you by her side, the only other feasible option was to take a walk to the shopping mall. With you on your stroller, she would either walk or take the hotel shuttle and spend her time checking out the various outlets there, almost on a daily basis. I guess it did help her gain some confidence in moving about alone (as in without me) and for you it was a welcome daily show of lights, colors and people around and enjoyment.

You came back with little knick-knacks and fancy girly stuff at times and happy overall with your daily outing. This also helped giving you your vital daily movement and in tiring you out for a timely sleep and your mom admitted that you were perhaps her best shopping companion ever and she loved getting you along and buying things for you unless you had to be taken along in the ‘Try-Room’. I was told that you simply hated being confined in a small changing room and cried your heart out in the little time that your mom had to spend there trying out some accessory or a piece of clothing.

This pattern ensued till the end of the first week and a half, after which we moved to a place called West Point in Philadelphia for a work week, owing to few official meetings that I had to attend there. Though you did not get to move around as much, but there was a small complex around and your strolls continued in the open lawns around, if not in the confinements of an air conditioned mall.

We moved into an apartment near the Union station directly from Philadelphia and your daily shopping spree had to take a break. The apartment, however gave you more space to move about and crawl than the hotel suite that you got used to and personally I think you liked it more too. By this time you were learning to stand on your own and use the furniture or articles around to get some support. Incidentally your first few steps were taken in this place. I shall talk more about your stay here and your subsequent sight seeing trips in the letters ahead. For now, here are a few pictures of your very first outing here, needless to add, at the Jersey Garden Mall.

Love,

Dad.