That’s Illegal, but dancing is not!

Children have such imaginations. It makes me wonder, did I have that kind of imagination when I was a child? It’s been so long I can’t remember. Mack is one of those kids and I think maybe his imagination is exceptional. He often tells us about his book of illegal stuff. In this book are all of HIS rules of things he dubs illegal. We are not aware of all the rules, but he let’s us know about them when situations come up. We went to Wal-mart today to do some fun shopping. Not grocery shopping, or shopping for “ I have to” shopping, but fun shopping. There is a big difference. It’s a bit of a drive to the store for us, since we live in the boonies. We are driving and talking, he talks A LOT, and he is helping me make a mental list of things I want to get and things he wants to get. Five dollars is a lot to a little boy, and there is a five dollar bill in his pocket. My list has seven things on it and his list has two things on it. We will remember our list by the numbers. That is always how we do it.

I tell him, "Mack, I am sorry but you will have to go into the ladies dressing room with me while I try on jeans."

"Do I have too?"

"Sorry, I can’t leave you alone in the store and not be able to see what you are doing."

"But Nanny, that is illegal on my list. No going into the ladies dressing room with ladies, and no going into the boys dressing room if you are a lady." (Even though he comes into the bedroom with me while I am dressing and I have to kick him out.)

"Sorry Mack, you have to come with me."

"Well, I guess I am going to have to scratch that off my list then so it won’t be illegal!"

"I guess so."

He hangs his head and with a sad face says, "Oh I have to always scratch things off my illegal list, that’s not fair". We get to the store and we start at the end where the jeans are so we will be able to work our way through the store in a nice straight line. I am not a three hour shopper. I make a list and then I go and shop in the shortest amount of time. The jean shopping was easy enough. One trip to the ladies dressing room and we are off to the next area.

On the way across the store they have shelves full of those singing and dancing stuffed animals for Valentines Day. You know the ones where you squeeze the hand and it starts playing a song and wiggles around? We needed to get Mack’s little friend, Gavon, something for Valentines Day since he moved away and a care package was being sent to him from his family. Free postage, I love it!

"Look at these, Nanny!"

They are gorillas with a record player that starts “scratching” when it starts playing. He is wearing head phones and big sun glasses. The song is “everybody dance now” You have to understand that Mack loves dancing. He starts squeezing a few and instantly, in the front of the store where the aisle is large for people coming and going, breaks out into dancing. I guess I could have said 'Mack, settle down and let’s go'. But something stopped me and instead I got out my digital camera, which can make video’s also, and said 'ok, squeeze that gorilla and do it again'. He began squeezing gorillas and broke out into dancing. As he is dancing he keeps going down the line of gorillas and squeezing as many as he can and never looses a step. That boy got some skills! He’s got crazy skills! I am filming and people are coming by looking. Mack is laughing out loud, a hardy, full honest, 'this is the best time of my life' laughing. One man goes by and turns his head and grins a big grin. Two older ladies come by, one pushing a basket the other on a scooter chair. They look and turn their heads and look at me. One says 'isn’t he cute' the other looks like she wanted to say, 'why would she let him act like that?'. He is laughing and dancing, oblivious to anything else going on around him as he keeps squeezing the gorillas over and over. I wouldn’t destroy this moment of sheer happiness for anything. I stop filming and all I can do is smile.

"Mack you are a fabulous dancer," I tell him.

He stops dancing and there are still dozen’s of gorillas playing and you know what he does? He goes down the line and one by one squeezes their hands and one by one he turns them off.

"That was great Nanny, wasn’t it?"

"Sure was."

The rest of our shopping trip was very relaxed and happy and we finished our list of items to get. Mack picked out his construction paper and his water colors and went to the register and pulled out his five dollar bill and gave it to the lady. I pitched in a dollar and a quarter and he got one penny back which he thought was pretty crappy but he was still happy about the fun we had on our shopping trip.

I love modern technology, I love my digital camera. I love my grandson and his spontaneous personality. I love the fact that I don’t have to be stuffy and make him act prim and proper. There is a time and place for everything and having fun while shopping is a must!! Otherwise it would be useless to drag a five year old any where. The memories I will have of him as a little boy will be only fun and happy memories. And that digital camera can bring them all to life one day when he can read my words and see with his own eyes how much fun he really is.