I decided to hit the supermarket today on my way home from the gym. Normally I don’t have time to do so, but it was a short workout day – so I figured I’d be all good.
The first mistake I made was to allow my 2 year old to request (and receive) the cart with the car attached. Those of you with kids know exactly why this was a mistake. Those of you without kids have probably seen people with kids pushing around the car-carts and thought “What a great idea. The kid has fun driving the car, and isn’t running all over the store”. WRONG. First of all – the car-cart is nearly impossible to maneuver thru the aisles, so you still go about as fast (slowly) as you would walking with a toddler. Secondly, the fun of the car-cart lasts about 10 minutes for my daughter and then she wants to get out. So then I’m pushing around an obnoxious cart that isn’t even serving the purpose of allowing me to not have to keep a two year old in eyesight.
Shortly after arriving at the market, my 3 month old decided that he’d had enough of being jostled around (in and out of the car to the gym, in and out of the carrier at the gym, and then in and out of the car again to the store) – and decided to let me know it. He would not be consoled. I decided to cut the other shoppers a break and not just let him cry it out and put himself back to sleep. So, there I was – pushing the car-cart with one hand while holding a squirming infant in the other and trying to still get the shopping done before my daughter decided it was time to get out of the car-cart.
We managed to get done shopping and to the checkout – the baby mostly happy and back in his car seat (momentarily anyway), and Madison back in the car-cart (after deciding she needed to get some wiggles out in aisle 11). As I lugged the car-cart around the corner I realized that the only check stand with the light on was the 15 items or less lane. I had considerably more items than 15, so I asked the checker if she was the only one open. “Yes” she replied – “Just come on thru.”. Easier said than done. The car-cart is NOT designed to fit into the smaller-than-normal 15 items or less line. As I struggled to get the car-cart out of the main walkway and get the groceries loaded on the tiny conveyor belt, another checker came over and opened a lane right next to us. Of course she didn’t do so until I had over half my cart unloaded. The lady just behind me in line (holding two items) glared at me and said “Aren’t you going to move over to that other lane?”. I gave her my best take-pity-on-me-I’m-trying-to-grocery-shop-with-a-toddler-and-a-tired-baby look and said “I’m sorry – I’m already mostly unloaded”. She harumphed over to the next line along with the half dozen other people waiting behind me. Oh well. As the checker was finishing with my groceries I picked up my gym bag to get my wallet out…doggone, where is that wallet? Maybe in the other pocket. Oh…no. You guessed it. No wallet. I felt total humiliation as I apologized to the checker and hurriedly rushed to my car with an empty car-cart, promising to return within 5 minutes to pick up my groceries and pay.
The next 20 minutes went something like this. Out to the car (in the rain) with the kiddos. Load them in. Drive like a crazy person the half mile home. Run into the house. Grab the wallet from the floor (where I can only assume my two year old left it after taking it out of my gym bag). Back to the car. More crazy driving. Unload the kids back into a cart (NOT a car-cart). Back into the store. Pay. Load groceries. Load kids into the car. Unload kids from the car. Unload groceries – just the frozen and fridge stuff though – because during my frantic run into the house for the wallet, I got a message from my sick sister asking if I could drive up to her place and pick up a prescription for her. Load kids back into the car. Listen to baby screaming while he falls back to sleep. Crazy driving. Realize the pharmacy is NOT a drive-thru. Unload kids from the car. Wake up baby on the way into the pharmacy. Pick up prescription. Re-load kids. Drive to sister’s house. Unload kids. Whew.
Bakerlady 