My Niece is smarter than Wynona

Yesterday I had a lovely outing to the mall planned with my 4 year old niece Keely. This is our standard outing - walk around the mall and shop, go to the play-place and then up to Macy's for lunch. The play place was cut out of the excursion today as she informed me that we no longer needed to frequent that place because she was 4 and 1/2 now and it was for little kids. I totally agreed.

Our last stop before Macy's was Von Maur - a Nordstrom-like department store. I was looking for shoes in the sale room, and Keely insisted that there were some she needed to try on too. She started with this pair of big, fuzzy purple slippers and asked if she could get them. I said no, they were too big for her. She told me that she would probably grow in to them next year when she was big, but I insisted that she was about 10 years off from fitting them.

Next she found some strappy sandals that she wanted to buy for her mom. Again I said no, that those were summer shoes and it was DEFINITELY not summer time in Michigan. Keely started putting them in her Gymboree bag and I insisted she take them out. I told her that was stealing and that if she took them she could get put in jail. She removed them and I thought looked a little worried. I figured I had put the fear of God in her and we left the store.

Upon arriving home, I brought the Gymboree bag in to Lisa to show her what we had bought for Keely for Valentine's day. As I opened the bag my mouth dropped open and I started to laugh out loud. There sitting on top of Keely's clothes was that hideous pair of mis-matched purple slippers. The little rascal had audaciously stuck them in her bag and walked out of the store with them. I tell you Wynona could have learned a thing or two from this kid. I'm so glad no alarms went off or I would have looked really guilty denying that we had any merchandise.

I'm glad Keely wasn't in the room when we discovered her little trick because I couldn't stop rolling on the ground laughing about it and I'm pretty sure that's not the response or message Lisa would want to convey to Keely with regard to her theivery.

For those of you worried about Keely's future in crime, when asked, Keely said she had brought them as a big surprise for her mom. I assure you, they were. Keely will be required to return them on Monday. Lisa insists that Keely would never have done this if Shawn didn't teach a lesson during their Monday Family time about when he was a little boy and stole something and how stealing was wrong. I'm not so sure, but I guess there's no way to know.