The play by play of my grocery shopping experience. Sorry, this could be long.
- We are out the door and in the van by 9:30am. (We are starting off great because I rarely have everyone ready and out the door this early.)
- The diaper bag is loaded with fruit snacks, pretzels, water, and all the other necessary items.
- We go to Smith's because I can put the two older kids in the car part of the cart and the baby in her car seat on the cart. (There is also two seats in the front part of the cart which can come in handy and will play a major part in this particular shopping experience.)
- Everyone is happy, we get the green car, we give it a good wipe down with the handy cleaning wipes they have available.
- The older kids are ready to drive, so I thought. I put some nectarines in a bag and Katelyn is already wanting out of the car. (The nectarines are at the very front of the store, she did not even last 2 minutes in the car.)
- I quickly pull out the fruit snacks and tell her she can have some if she sits in the cart up front with Ashley. She is happy with that idea. (Phew, we avoided a major melt down.)
- Now we are in the meat section. Katelyn ate those fruit snacks way too fast and is already wanting out of the cart. (It has only been about 3 minutes since I put her in the seat.) She was starting to get frustrated and the whining and crying started.
- I decided to let her out for a minute and told her if she did not stay by me she would have to get back in the cart.
- To my surprise she stayed with me while shopping down one aisle of food. But the next aisle was not good. She decided she wanted to take food off the shelves and stack the food. When I told her to stop she ran to the florist area and started pulling flowers off the stems. AAAAAH! (okay, now I am starting to sweat because I am pushing the enormous car cart and trying to stop Katelyn from destroying the store)
- On a positive note, Luke and Ashley were being very good. Thank goodness!
- I finally capture the flower thief and tell her she has to get back in the cart by Ashley.
- She was not wanting that and the screaming began. She is not shy when it comes to screaming and she is so strong. I am trying to lift her into the seat and get her to bend her legs to go through the holes. She is fighting me, but I finally win. (now I am not only sweating, but my back is hurting from wrestling her)
- This is probably when I should have just left the cart and loaded everyone back in the van and headed home. But we needed milk and I only had a few more things to get so I endured and everyone else in the store had to endure also.
- She screamed and kept telling me she wanted to get down. Major tears!
- I tried giving her the pretzels or any other treats I could find, but that wasn't going to stop her. I tried to make her my helper by having her hold the coupons and grocery list. That lasted about 10 seconds and then I ended up picking them up off the floor.
- We got those last few items as fast as I could push that humongous cart.
- It is finally time to pay for the groceries and she decides to reach for all the goodies that are at the checkout stand. No matter how I put the cart she could still reach them. I put the groceries on the belt as fast as I could and then picked up all the candy bars off the floor.
- The cashier distracted Katelyn for a few minutes and gave her some stickers. (I know, she got stickers for all that misbehavior.) I was just wishing I had packed some magic stickers in the diaper bag because they made her day and she was happy as could be sitting in the cart. You would have never known what a "fun" experience we just had throughout the store.
I think I may start waiting to do my shopping after Kevin gets home from work. But if I do decide to brave the grocery store again with all 3 and you see me there, I'm sorry. I thought I should apologize in advance. :)
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