toy sale tale

All part of the research- at her cousins' house, Poppy and the chatty grill, Charlie

well, all went according to plan. nanny came over to play with Poppalina after brekky, which allowed me to get down to the plaza and into target by 8:10am. I strode confidently towards the Fisher Price area with my trolley, which was provided to me upon entry with a copy of the catalogue and the enormous target toy sale bag and proceeded to pick out the winners, starting with Charlie, that chatty grill and his friend, Dusty the talking hoover. it was easy and I was able to work most efficiently, largely due to my scrapbooked little list- it may be nerdy but it worked!

while I got in and out of there in under 40 minutes (that was leisurely. speedily, it might have taken no longer than 20 minutes), other less organised mothers and grandmothers and aunties-very few dads, you will note-were frantically flipping through catalogues in their desperate and somewhat feeble attempts to explain to staff what it was they were after (amusingly gestural rather than verbal, "here, somewhere, saw it...."point, flip, flip, "no, hang on, somewhere..." flip, flip, flip. I merely showed my little rebus list and was immediately directed to the appropriate aisle. once, I interrupted a frustrated trailer-park-looking mother (no offense to other trailer park dwellers), with a toddler on her hip, who was trying to flip the pages of the catalogue for her and was met by her defeated, now-why-didn't-I-think-of-that vacant stare. she actually stopped still in silent amazement for a full minute. I think she'd realised, in the same instant, that her toddler knew more than she did. I was in fact, able to locate all items as well as pre-order the enchanted princess trike (held off-site) without angst AND I still had sufficient sanity to thank the helpful staff members, who remained calm and courteous despite the rising panic around them. so just to confirm the rules of engagement for the punters who choose to accept next year's mission:

1. DO NOT try to take the children


2. DO your homework. have a preview shop, scrapbook your little list as soon as the catalogue arrives in the mail and refer to it frequently


3. DO ask staff members for assistance


4. DO wait patiently for no-deposit layby. you will wait for no longer than 2 mins before 9am


5. DO leave the store, get into the car and go home once you have completed the mission successfully


6. DO have a quiet, reflective coffee

The Push and Go Train is a clear winner