Thursday, March 13, 2008

Candid Camera

A few weeks ago I took the kids to Wal-Greens to pick up some medicine. As we waited for the pharmacist to fill the prescription (which takes three minutes to actually get the medicine ready and ten minutes to complete the paperwork) we walked around the store for a bit. I navigated Wyatt in the stroller through the aisles when Max, a few feet in front of me, stopped dead in his his tracks. I followed his gaze to the cieling in front of us and saw he was staring at himself in a security camera monitor.

"Look Dad!" he said. "It's me and you and Wyatt on TV."

Max then proceeded to move his arms and jump to make sure that it was actually him in the monitor. Wyatt, then realized that he too was in the monitor, and wanted to get out of the stroller. The three of us stood in the middle of the aisle making funny faces and dancing and laughing. We caused quite a commotion for the other people in the store.

While we were carrying on I noticed that as I moved to my left, the person (me) in the montior moved to his left but to my (the real me) right. We each took turns getting closer to the camera and then walking away. We played for several minutes and I was fascinated watching my kids on the screen. Wyatt suddenly became bored with the dancing and and I watched him in the monitor walk down a different aisle to the right. I called him to come back but he did not.

I then turned to the aisle on my right and Wyatt was gone. I started to panic and I ran down the aisle, to the one that crosses, looked both ways, but he was nowhere. A little part of me freaked and I ran back to Max who was still watching himself. I called out for Wyatt but he did not respond. I yelled louder. Max and some other customers looked at me like I was nuts.

"He went THAT way Daddy." he said and pointed to the shelves to our left.

I turned to the left and there, ten feet in front of me, was Wyatt playing with some type wrapping paper.

Yes, I ran AWAY from my kid.

Stupid monitor thingy getting me all disoriented.


Side note: If you have little kids and want to keep them occupied for 20 or so minutes. Hook up your video camera with the AV cables to your TV or computer and let them watch themselves. I did this last night and it gave me time to do the dishes and clean up their toys.

14 comments:

Unknown said...

No comment on the running AWAY from your kid, thing... but I will give serious thought to the video camera keeping the kids busy thing... cool.

Anonymous said...

Hopefully they will not be in those security cameras as adults.

Anonymous said...

I'm sure you and Lauren have used those AV cables before.

Cathy said...

Wait. Your Walgreens actually fills your prescriptions on the spot? Wow. If I ask ours to do that I get a big sigh and, "it'll take at least 20-30 minutes" (so yeah, you might as well just pick it up later).

Suzy-Q said...

There was nothing better for my daughter Carly to watch when she was small than a "Carly Movie". (home videos...they would keep her occupied a long time!)

You know that security guy at Walgreens may post this on YouTube.

Anonymous said...

And the security people watching the cameras were all, "Hey! Look at that dude panicking about losing his kid! And his kid is, like, RIGHT THERE. Dumb*ss."

Hee.

eclectic said...

Ha! That is why I always ask the doctor to call ahead and then I use the drive-up window to fill prescriptions. I hate killing time in the store waiting for them. But maybe, if I saw you and your boys making faces at the security guy, maybe I wouldn't mind it so much. ;)

Amber said...

Hey William

Lowa said...

I probably miss a lot of what you say in your posts because I am in shock that you take your kids places, change diapers, get up with them in the morning, feed them, play with them and DO DISHES AND CLEAN UP!?!?!

Dude. You ROCK. I hope Lauren knows how bloody lucky she is! Man, if my husband had been 1/8 as helpful and involved as you had been, I would have at least eight kids by now! I love having babies, I just can't do it all myself, you know??

Keep it up man!

Unknown said...

That is an awesome Idea! I will try it today.

Lauren is very lucky to have such a good husband. Thanks from me for washing the dishes and cleaning up the kids toys. Maybe mine (and others) can learn from your good example.

Anonymous said...

william learned all his helpful ways from his Dad. The best Dad in the whole world. And the best hubby. He always changed diapers, took 5 or 6 of the kids grocery shopping, got up in the middle of the night with the crying toddler(I was in charge of the infant), helped with homework when necessary. A good man. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree.:) Guess Who

Unknown said...

Hi Bill's Mom!

I get my prescriptions filled at Target, and it always takes 15 minutes, during which time I can rack up quite a bill for stuff I don't really need. It's a racket.

sari said...

If you get your kids started on the video cameras, they will ALWAYS be wanting to record movies of themselves, so make sure you don't let them have a tape of oh, your second child five minutes after his birth, because they will tape over it with visions of them rolling their eyes back in their heads and picking their noses and you'll never hear the end of it from your wife.

Believe me.

Bogart said...

Could be worse, you could have just left him at the store and not realized it until you were home...

I still love my mom.