Small Bags For Tiny Items In A Big Man's Place

I wrote a series of activities for me and my new born child to do as soon as he was born. The very first father-and-son activity we did was jogging. I went jogging and he was on his stroller enjoying the view. What I want to happen someday is that me and my son could go out jogging together. But big things start with small beginnings and a run is the apex of a jog that starts with a walk.

I have planned a hiking trip this week and I want to take with me my now-8-year old son. I'm very excited, I can't wait. I can say, he is as excited as I am too. When I told him about the idea two weeks ago, he immediately went to his room and rummaged through his things. What he did was used his backpack and put inside some clothes. I just smiled and told him, “Son, it's about time this father-and-son tandem go shopping.”

“But isn't shopping for girls? Mommy and sister do it all the time,” my son scowled.

So I told him that we, men, could go shopping as well. It took a ten-minute drive to get to the mall where we are going to buy some things. Thirty minutes later, we were done shopping. Women usually takes a lot of time to buy stuff.

At the end of the day, I was $500 dollars poorer but my son's excitement for the impending weekend trip? Priceless. Do you want to know what I bought from the $500 that I had?

1. What I bought first was a backpacking backpack. I think Osprey has the most child-friendly backpacking backpacks in the market. What we purchased is an Osprey Jet Dayback with an eagle upfront, perfect for my little boy. We picked the color blue, as it is the general color for boys.

2. Hiking Boots. My son wanted a Hi-Tec Renegade Hiking Boots in blue color but there wasn't any available at the moment. It was quite a relief because I haven't seen a hiker wearing blue hiking shoes yet.

3. Then a Tritan water bottle. Also in blue.

4. Wiz Kids Headlamp in blue.

5. We purchased next a vest for my boy. I told Junior a vest is not really practical and better to use it during fishing. But he hears none of it. My little boy told me that he will use the vest as a storage for his sandwiches and candies. Can't argue so I had to buy it.

6. A couple pairs of cargo shorts. We didn't choose a color blue this time.

7. Three shirts. We chose one with a long sleeve because junior wants to protect himself from sunlight. I didn't think of that, the idea was all his.

8. Then we bought a pair of Oakley sunglasses. Oakley is not a cheap brand and I wanted something else, but my son told me that it is better to purchase a more expensive one because you can use it for a long time. It cost me around $250, constituting half of my overall purchased items. A pair of shades is as expensive as the other seven items combined.

So there, everything was packed inside the backpacking backpack a day after we went shopping. All the backpack needs is to go outdoors and that's happening over the weekend. I'm really hoping that the weather is going to be good so that we can enjoy our bonding moment.