westward, ho!

i've been looking for a little red wagon for cole for a long time. "looking" being the term i'm using for "once in a blue moon i remember that i'm looking for a wagon and then i spend five minutes poking around on craigslist."

on thursday night i got a bee in my bonnet again about getting a wagon and, becoming slightly and irrationally despondent about the lack of good wagons on craigslist, was about to order one from a great place in the states that has free shipping. but i waited, and in the light of morning yesterday - lo and behold - a new wagon listing on craigslist! i was all over it like butter and jam on toast and called the person up at ten to nine, because apparently when you have children you forget that there's such a thing as "too early" and that, for other people, that might include the wee hours before 9 am. i rationalized that, when calling someone who is selling a wagon one can safely assume that the person on the other end is well-acquainted with the early morning habits of the small folk.

anyway, long story short, cole and i drove on over to a lovely home on 26th and fraser to pick up our slightly used wagon. apparently the folks who were selling it are moving to europe and thankfully the kids didn't seem too broken up watching us roll the wagon away. you might not know it now, kids, but you're on your way to europe - rejoice! and i think they have wagons there too.

we made the most of our trip downtown, stopping at granville island toys on main for some good times, since cole often references "going to the toy store" reverently in his imaginative play, like some kind of holy city of awesomeness. then we squeaked in a few stops on granville street - i had to pick up a wedding gift at pottery barn and then a wine stop at the liquor store. we rolled the length of granville's shopping area and made both stops in the wagon, so it should be noted that i can enter and exit not one but two stores full of breakable goods while pulling an unrestrained toddler in a vehicle with a wide turning radius.

coco loves the wagon and i love watching him love it. he likes to ride and he likes to pull. we took it out after naptime for a little walk in our neighbourhood and had a grand time filling it with goodies before pulling it to our destination, a sunny hill. we sat on that hill, rolled, ate cookies and rolled some more, discovered "canada" apparently underneath a droopy tree, lost and then found my new sunglasses in the long grass, hassled all the dogs that walked by and waited for jamie to come walking up the path homeward bound.

if my brother is any indication of how long a wagon should last a little boy, i would say this one has about eight years of use ahead of it, but then again coco doesn't have a big sister who may taunt him for riding around in a wagon. ;-)