So Many Options!

So today, to kill some time before the morning nap (since we were all up and ready early for the fence folks - thinking that answering the door for them in jammies might not be the best of ideas, though they didn't actually even come to the door, so really that was a waste of getting up early), the kiddo and I headed out to see if we could find a sand and water table that could actually be purchased in person, despite everything online saying that they were only available online. (It's not that I distrust store websites as a matter of course, it's just that the WalMart website, for example, always says that what I want is unavailable at any store within 100 miles, but when I actually go to WalMart, there are six billion of the item sitting happily on the shelf waiting for me. So...I figure if I have the time, it's always good to check before paying shipping.)

I thought that Costco might have such an item. But alas, they did not. I did manage to get a new mattress pad for our bed (since between being stretched more than perhaps it was designed for to fit our deep mattress and our washer's propensity to eat anything remotely mesh-like there isn't a whole lot of elastic on our current one left) a six pack of Kleenex boxes and the first in Nora Roberts' new quartet. So it wasn't a complete waste of time.

Then, since Costco is right next to Toys R Us, we toddled over there. And we found options upon options upon options. Though none were the one I had basically decided I wanted when browsing online last night. Since we were there and they are all located next to eachother, I thought we would also pick up some sort of inflatable pool for splashing around in this summer. Holy cow. I didn't realize I would need to research inflatable pools!

They have the hard plastic tubs that you and I grew up with. They have the inflatable version of those. Then they have ones with slides and sprinklers and umbrellas and "ride on inflatable dolphins" and on and on and on! And that's just the pools. They also have the "splash mat" type things - that have maybe 3 or 4 inches of water in them and are more like a water park spinkle area - and a thousand varieties of those exist as well.

I'm leaning toward the latter given that Joshua is an active little boy and even in the tub is prone to want to stand and run around (don't worry, we don't let him stand or run around in the tub...but it's an ongoing struggle to get him to sit on his bottom and splash). So I think he'd have more fun in the splash mat environment than in the pool. But which one to get? How many bells and whistles does he need? (And, not unrelated, how much do I want to spend?)

I'm seriously tempted to just get a tarp and set the sprinkler in the middle of it and be done. It really shouldn't be this hard!