Pop, Pop, and Away

We went to town today to gather a few items and also to buy a gift for a friend of Sydney's, just turning three. Sydney's favorite place to buy gifts; The Party Store.

When you go to the Party Store, you're really there to buy balloons. So we explained that one balloon would go to Sydney, the other, to her friend.

"Okay," Sydney said, and then promptly picked out a bright, cheery orange one for herself, and a somber black one for the birthday boy.

We intervened and picked out a purple Happy Birthday balloon, and handed them out to the clerk to be filled, whereupon the balloon became about the size of Sydney and three times as wide.

"Hon," my husband said to me, "Do you think we can fit that into the car?"

We then belatedly learned from the clerk that a balloon of that size would probably deflate in 4 or 5 hours. The birthday party would be the next day.

"Fortunately," the future salesman exclaimed, "for 35 cents extra we can add a substance called Hi Float, which will make the balloon last for 24 to 36 hours!"

We had already committed ourselves to the balloon. We agreed to fill two balloons with Hi Float.

Six dollars later, we were out of the store and trying to stuff them into the back of the car when one of the balloons popped suddenly. It was the bright cheery orange one.

"Uh oh," we muttered to each other. "What should we do?"

"Syd," my husband said a few seconds later, "your balloon popped."

"Oh," she said, disinterested. She was busy looking at the pavement.

"Is that okay?" he persisted.

"Yes," she said. She was on to something else entirely.

Relieved, we stuffed the remaining balloon into the back of the car and headed to our next errand, a drugstore. Somehow, Sydney found herself in the party section of that store (is party animalism genetic?) and shouted for joy. "Bayyoons!!" she cried, and promptly pulled down a mylar helium contraption with Dora the Explorer on it.

We were now 9 dollars into helium, ribbon, mylar and rubber.

We began to wend our way home with the new balloon, the birthday balloon and our various other errands stuffed into our small Prius, when we heard another explosion in the back. The big, Hi Float Happy Birthday balloon was gone.

Two balloons down. At least we still had Dora.

Who, true to her name, decided to set out Exploring when I opened the trunk during our next stop to change a diaper. Neither Sydney nor I witnessed Dora's silent escape from the car, but she was nowhere to be found when we got home.

Fortunately Sydney had bought a wooden secondhand train. "Your balloon is gone," I explained to her as we went into the house.

"Oh," she said, rolling her train on the floor.

The train was 2 dollars. And Sydney was happy. And that was all that really mattered.