"Hop on, explorers!"

At Blockbuster today, my two little girls requested that I rent out the DVD, Spongebob Squarepants -- The Seascape Capers. Actually, it's more like they jumped for joy with their raised voices in sync: "Spongebob, Spongebob, Spongebob!" (Okay everyone, you can all turn around now. Nothing to see here. Just me and the kiddies being loud and obnoxious.) Tina and Mindy knew that they'd already seen all these Spongebob episodes on Nickelodeon a billion and one times. Still, they insisted that I rent it out anyway.

It's seeing this delight on the kids' faces that I've kept up the trips to Blockbuster with them rather than keeping them at home when it seems more convenient. That as well as on almost all my errands that I've let them tag along. It keeps them well stimulated. Kinda like Ms. Frizzle and The Magic Schoolbus, whereby "every trip is a field trip". And of course, there's still the whining and the "daddy, I want this, I want that" and the "are we there yet?" droning that goes with each voyage. But I suppose that's their way of giving me lessons in testing my parenting skills.

So while the stores may be the same, the errands trivial or the movies all so repetitive, I guess there's always something new to learn along the way.