Tag: Polaris Mall

Shopping and eating…

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Maria begged me to take her and her girlfriend to the mall on Friday night. Mario stayed with Patty this weekend – loving his time with his grandma before she moves from Marion. 

It was a cold night on Friday so I knew that we would not be able to play outside. This was pretty much the only reason I agreed to the mall – that, and it allowed for me to at least walk around and get some exercise while they looked at clothes. It also brings back fond memories of my girlfriend Beth and I going to Kenwood Mall on the weekends. We would spend hours up there just walking around, eating lunch, looking to see if any other friends or boys were around. We inevitably would find other friends hanging out because that is what we did in the 1980s. Nowadays, kids actually go there just to shop. How strange is that?

 I couldn’t believe how long Maria and her friend could remain in one store. I waited out on the couches for them, catching up on emails, but after 25 minutes I thought maybe they had been held hostage in there. I went to check on them and, sure enough, they were trying on there seventh shirt in the dressing room – just as happy as can be. 


Ri walked out with this snazzy top and I told her there was no way her father would allow her to wear that outside the house. She loved it though, and of course, I caved in and got it for her – but required her to agree that she would only wear it this summer, not beforeehand. I’m a real stickler aren’t I?!

They finally decided to move to a different store. They chose Bare Minerals. I watched a video of how to put on make up, and realized how little I know about proper application of that stuff. I was tempted to buy everything that was on the video because the older lady starring in it transformed from wrinkles and blemishes to a supermodel. But the  practical part of me, along with many generations of women who have never been consumed by that stuff, overpowered any remaining desire I had. I grabbed the girls and told them we needed to move on to another store. But this was not before they both applied some funky pink lipstick.

We moved on to Lush. I actually liked the store – all organic bath products. The bath bombs smelled delicious. I caved in and bought each girl one of them. These are the times that I wish we had a huge bathtub – I could get into using one of those bath bombs every night to relax me.

We hit a few more clothing stores, including the newly designed Abercrombie and Fitch store, which the girls geeked over. Finally, 2 1/2 hours later, they were starving and ready to go. Everyone was craving Mexican food so we decided to head to El Vaquero. Not a smart move when you are starving and they feed you nonstop chips and salsa. 


We were ill or by the time our food came but how can you reject fish tacos and enchiladas? And to top it off and make us truly stuffed, we had to get the fried ice cream for dessert!  I was positive we would all have stomachaches at 2 am.


Surprisingly, we all slept like logs. In fact, we woke up the next morning and decided to top off our Mexican grub from the previous evening with some timbits from Tim Hortons. If you are gonna splurge, splurge big!

Shopping Country

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Mario doing his model pose before he leaped off the tree stump

We braved heading to Polaris last night.  Polaris is a little city in intself with strip malls on one side of the street and a shopping mall on the other.  It’s north of the city and takes about 25 minutes to get to it on a good night.  I purposefully left at 6:30 pm with the hopes we would miss traffic but cars were braking constantly creating walls of red in front of us.  When we finally arrived at the lighting store, it felt like midnight and I had lost all enthusiasm for picking out lights.  I got some of  my enthusiam back when Maria and Mario discovered a playroom in the showroom, which allowed me to spend more than two seconds looking at lights.  Shops that contain kids’ playrooms rock this Earth and I just want to kiss all over the owner for thinking of us crazed parents that need to bring our kids with us to shop.  

The showroom overwhelmed me.  Lights hanging everywhere – silver, bronze, chrome, gold, amber….   I am finding that I need a limited choice of things when I go shopping or I get overwhelmed and cannot make a choice.  Not like I can make a quick choice between two things but 100 things just make my brain freeze.  I could have stayed at the showroom for hours, though, because Maria and Mario were content in the playroom watching Ariel with a new friend whose mom was enjoying a reprieve, too. 

We hit Great Indoors next.  That store looks like it is going downhill.  It used to feel more perky and alive.  We walked in and there were hardly any people, aisles were practically empty of items, and the mood was dejected.  But, they did have some pretty lights.  Luckily, they also had a mattress section right across from the lights that kept M&M busy (they loved the remote-controlled adjustable beds, of course).  I fell in love with one but it was not in stock.  I want the light before Thanksgiving so that I can show it off to my family.  Of course,  the practical right-minded part of me is saying that I should order the light and not care about getting it up before Thanksgiving since I will have it forever and I will love it.  But the anal, perfectionist that I am wants to have my lights installed prior to Thanksgiving so that the house can be in order, and that part of me prevailed.  I left the store with no lights but an idea of three or four that I would continue to consider until I went back to the store by myself on Friday afternoon. 

Maria "flirting" with Jack Hanna

About ten minutes prior to us leaving for the Playland, Maria walked over to me and begged for us to go. “Mom, I am ready to die.  I am so so hungry!”  Mario, on the other hand, begged to go to the Playland first.  Maria conceded as long as we got pizza and an Oreo brownie afterwards.  As we passed mannequins in the Ann Taylor store window, Mario looked up to me and whispered “hot girls!”  He is so wrong.  He acted like a wild man at the play land leaping off rocks and animals.  Maria ran around with him for about ten minutes and then her growling stomach forced her to stop.  It took us ten minutes to round up her insane brother but we finally got him to go by telling him that he could hop all the way back to the Food Court. 

We took down some pizza and an Oreo brownie at the Food Court.  While we ate, I asked M&M what lights they liked best at Great Indoors.  They ignored me as they ate their pizza but then Maria finished her food and began to lecture me. “Mom, you WANT new lights but do you need them?  There are things that we want but that we don’t need.  Do you think the lights are something you want but you don’t need?”

Huh??!  Where did I get this little minimalist, philosophical girl?  Oh yeah, she’s my daughter and I helped raise her to think just like this.  Meanwhile, Mario sat in his chair making strange faces and putting the remainder of his pizza on his head and stomach to try to make us laugh.  Where did I get this over-the-top, comedian boy?  Oh yeah, he’s my son and I helped raise him to be insane!   We drove home and called Jon to wish him sweet dreams good-night, laid down in my non-reclining bed, and fell fast asleep.

Alone with the Mario-man

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Maria spent the weekend with her cousin, Alana and her Grandma Ionno and Papa Ionno.  Grandma Ionno (Patty) is a powerhouse of a lady – able to take these grandkids for days at a time.  Her energy amazes everyone along with her positive attitude and dedication to family.  She takes Mario for days at a time: a three-year old “spazo” kid who wants to wrestle and fight and play b-ball, and she handles him for five days straight.  Incredible.  She weighs all of 100 pounds wet and still has that cheerleader smile and pep to her from high school.  She has been dealing with the “Bickerson Twins” as she calls Maria and Alana when they are together.  They tend to whine and bicker often when they are together (with me, too) and Patty simply tells them that they will head home if they don’t shape up.  They shape up – because who would want to leave Grandma Ionno’s house? 

Mario ready to play b-ball on his 2nd b-day!

Meanwhile, Jon and I are dealing with only one child.  We recalled when we had only Maria and we would complain about how hard it was and how we wished we had more alone time.  Then Mario came and we thought “man, we had it easy with one – what were we complaining about?”  Mario played basketball a good part of the day.  he woke up this morning begging to play but we made him wait until it got in the 40s.  He went on errands with Jon (got donuts) and then came home to play b-ball.  He played for almost  an hour and a half before Blake, the neighborhood boy (age 6) called from his yard over to Mario “Do you want to play soccer with me?”  At first Mario declined because he wanted to continue playing b-ball with his cool mom but then Blake asked again.  Mario looked at me and chirped “Mom, Blake wants to have a playdate with me!”   His dialogue with Blake was precious “Blake, do you want me to bring my basketball” and “you can come to my house for a playdate, too.”  He walked back home a half hour later with Blake holding his one hand and a chocolate milk in his other. Mario ready to play b-ball on his second b-day!”Mom, I had a fun playdate with Blake. Can he come to our house for a play date sometime?” 

Precious. 

We took a walk later.  Since the stroller has been out of commission, we tried the backpack.  We have not used the backpack in at least four months.  However, as soon as I slipped it on with him snug on my back, I remembered all of the rides we took when he was an infant and a toddler.  His perfectly shaped head resting on the mid of my back as I walked gently throughout the neighborhood so I would not jar him.  Holding his tiny feel in my hands as I walked down the streets with him.  Feeding him raisins as we looked for birds and squirrels.  It all came back to me as soon as I swung him on my back. 

We headed up to the second-hand store to try to find some “basketball pants” for him.  He liked jeans for one day over the last four months – sweats are just where it is for him at this stage of his life.  But all of his sweats are way too short for him (he thinks they look cool though because you can see his socks well).  I told him that we would get him some basketball sweats like the ones the college players wear and that was all it took.  He was game.  We stopped at DQ and got an ice cream cone to eat along the way.  When we got to the second-hand store, Mario helped me find four pairs of b-ball sweats – two with stripes down the side and one with snaps at the bottom.  He also picked out a basketball hat and a new black belt which he promptly clasped around his middle (with sweatpants on!). 

Mario in his backpack

We started home together and I found myself yawning and exhausted.  Mario’s head cold had finally gotten me.  So, I made up a story about an elephant named George who loved to go to the park.  I asked Mario to continue the story and he added that George had a man as a friend names Steve Sign.  A monster came to the park one day and killed George and Steve Sign.  Ok, my turn.  I added Henrietta, the best friend of George, who loved him dearly and cried a river when she found out he died.  I turned it over to Mario.  Mario added the following: 

“The river turned out to have sharks in it.  The sharks found Henrietta and ate her.”

Exasperated with constant death, I added “Henrietta’s parents came and saw the sharks hurting her and…”

I waited to hear Mario say that they got killed, too but instead he said the following:

“And Henrietta’s dad fought with the sharks and Henrietta and her mom became alive.” 

Alright!  No death; fighting still, but no death.  That is a start. 

Maria, Alana and Mario posing at Polaris

We woke up this morning to 35 degrees.  Within five minutes of rubbing my eyes awake, Mario begged to go outside to play b-ball.  I made him eat a fiber bar before we went out (a new bribe – eat something good for breakfast and we’ll play b-ball).  The boy could play b-ball for hours.  We were out there 45 minutes before dad made us come inside because it was so cold.  We traveled up to Polaris Mall at noon to meet Grandma and Grandpa Ionno and Maria and Alana.  They played at the play land for a while.  Alana and Mario ran after each other and tackled each other.  Maria felt left out.  She sulked over in the corner.  I told her to go and play with them but she didn’t feel like it.  My girl – she has a lot of loner in her (is that a Menkedick trait?) so I told her to do her own thing.  She walked around and climbed some animals in a sort of melancholy fashion but with quiet purpose.  After a while, Alana ran up to her and hugged her and that got her in the mood to play again. 

We came home after Polaris and Mario and Alana played while Maria got escorted to Zanesville to go to the farm.  Mario and I headed to the library after Alana left and got some Hulk book and Superman books.  On the way home, I saw his eyes getting heavy.  I knew I was in trouble since it was 4:15 and we had to leave for the hockey game at 5.  By the time we hit the house, he was knocked out cold.  When I take him out of the stroller, he usually always wakes up (when we want him to sleep).  Today, he was limp and out.  I put him on the couch.  Jon and I made noise, Cy barked, but he would not wake up.  At 5 pm, I finally jostled him awake and asked if he wanted to go to the game.  At first he tossed around pissed at the world but then he realized it was the hockey game and he agreed to go.  We got there a little late and it took him a while to open up to the people in the suite but after the first quarter, he came alive (probably from the 3 chocolate chip cookies he devoured).  He acted goofy, ran around, gave hugs, flirted with a “cute girl” and loved the hockey game.  He watched it intently commentating on the players, the refs and the ice.  He loved the experience.  When we left, he asked me when we could go to a basketball game.

Maria and Pee-paw scoping out the farm before the house was built!

We got home and watched his new favorite show: Power Rangers.  He stood up and aped what the actors did in the show.  He reminds me of my little brother when he does that; Jackson used to not only mimic what they did physically but he used to have killer sound effects that he added.  I called Maria to see how she was doing at the farm, and she was being her silly self on the phone – happy to be off of school for Spring Break and with Mama Meg and Pee-paw.