Boys' shopping day

A post from the Daddy Man:

Mothers Day was coming, and I decided to take Biscuit shopping.

What was I thinking?

Biscuit likes to be out and about. He behaves himself in stores. He's polite to people he meets.

But unless he's looking at toys, Biscuit is not a good shopper.

And searching through racks of purses and glass cases of jewelry in a department store, well, that's not Biscuit's idea of fun.

His heart was in the right place. He wanted to find something to match a necklace he picked out for mama a while back, a pendant with a heart-shaped ruby.

He trudged through the purses - Dad was looking for gift ideas, too - reminding me every 30 seconds or so that the jewelry department was "way over there," and we were getting farther and farther away from it with every step we took.

Needless to say, Dad didn't find anything because Dad couldn't concentrate.

So Dad gave up, and we went to the jewelry counter. And the search for red gems began.

Biscuit was in a hurry. He wanted to buy every red stone he saw -- from little-kid jewelry with red ladybugs to high-end jewelry set in platinum.

"He's got good taste," the clerk said after Biscuit picked out a sapphire necklace with a $2,200 price tag. "But that's a dark orange and not red."

"And it's just a little over our budget," I said to her.

Then I turned to Biscuit.

"Hey boy," I said, "remember what we're looking for? You already got Mama a necklace. You're looking for something to match it."

"Oh yeah," Biscuit said to the clerk. "We want red heart earrings for Mom. Do you have those?"

They did not. So we thanked the clerk and headed out to another store.

Biscuit was antsy and wanted to run ahead. I told him it was OK, and he took off.

But then he stopped short and pointed inside a doorway. He'd found a jewelry store. The one that sells those Jane Seymour Open Hearts necklaces. He went in before I even got to him.

Oh joy. This should be fun.

The boy made a bee-line for the first salesman he saw.

"Excuse me," Biscuit said. "We need red heart earrings for my Mom to match her necklace."

The clerk looked at me and I nodded. He took us to one of the glass cases and prepared to start a sales pitch. He didn't get far.

"Those," Biscuit said, pointing. "The grey hearts with the red dot in the middle."

Holy cow. Mr. Impatient had actually found exactly what he was looking for - silver hearts with a small ruby in the middle.

"You sure, boy?" I said. "You don't want to keep looking?"

"Those," he repeated. "They match. And it only took us two stores."

The price was reasonable, so the clerk made the easiest sale of his career. He even gift-wrapped them for us.

Mission accomplished.

"Now can we go to the toy store?" Biscuit asked.