It was the naughtiest of times, it was the nicest of times...

The week has been full of ups and downs for Jacob.

On Thursday, we went to the playground at the Mall in Columbia so he could get out and run around (it's been rainy here for the past couple of nights, so neighborhood parks have been pretty wet in the mornings). He, Lucy and I went almost right at 10 a.m. when the mall opens, thus there weren't many other children when we got there. Jacob was ecstatic to climb and run all over. I kept Lucy in her car seat (which detaches from the stroller) and I sat on the perimeter bench and cheered on Jacob. He was enjoying himself a little too much on the fruit slide. The slide is a large vinyl slide made to look like a pile of large pieces of fruit. It's about four feet tall and I became really nervous when he started climbing over the top to the steep side where he could fall and hurt himself. Coming to encourage him to get down, Jacob kept telling me to stay with Lucy, i.e. leave him alone. Alas, Lucy did start to get upset, so I went to check on her. After a minute of calming her, I turned around and he was not on the fruit slide anymore.

I looked around and didn't spot him until I saw him climbing the stairs outside of the play area up to the mall's second level. I ran and got him and dragged him back, ignoring his protests. We got back to Lucy and I put him down. He wanted to go back to the stairs, so I grabbed the car seat. Lucy and I followed him, leaving the stroller behind. We walked up the stairs, which I thought was his final destination. Then he started off down the hall, passing store after store. I was afraid he remembered either the pet store (about two thirds of the way down the mall) or the carousel (all the way down the mall). He stopped about half way and decided he was done walking. Which meant that daddy had to carry him in one arm and Lucy in her car seat with the other arm. It was a long walk back.

He made up for his naughtiness at Friday's library story time. Jacob was rather sedate during songs and such as usual. When the scarves came out for peek-a-boo, he actually waited for the lady to come and then get his scarf. He even played peek-a-boo with it just like the lady showed us. When it was time to give them back, he walked up and put it back in the basket. Later, little egg shakers were handed out. Jacob was extra cooperative with that as well. He was even quite polite during the play time with the toys. While he didn't really share any of his toys, he was willing to trade or get a new toy.

After story time was over, Jacob wanted to go upstairs. I told him we couldn't take the stairs because of Lucy's stroller so we'd have to take the elevator. He made a beeline for elevator. We went up and walked around for a bit and then came back downstairs. As we left, Jacob asked for a puzzle. So we walked back in and got a puzzle. He waited patiently on the checkout line. It was a very satisfying trip to the library.

I hope there's more library trips and better mall trips in our future.