This Town Needs Online Grocery Shopping

Today was G's weekly swimming lesson so I figured that while Randy was out with her I'd gather up the boys and head to the grocery store...on a Saturday...at 10 o'clock in the morning. What was I thinking?!

Grocery shopping with Baby C is interesting enough given that he's only happy when worn and he's now approaching 20 lbs. Walking through the store while wearing him (even in my nice Moby wrap) is a bit of a workout, especially when you factor in the constant bouncing I must commence whenever I pause for longer than 5 seconds to look at an item.

Fortunately the store we frequent has shopping carts with cars attached to the front. S loves to ride in these, especially since it means that he can sneakily snatch various items from the shelves while my view is obscured by a cart full of groceries. Today he grabbed a can of corn as I selected a few canned veggies for their lunches. I distracted him by handing him a box of Cheerios which he spent the next 20 minutes trying to open (unsuccessfully). The box is somewhat mangled, but those quiet 20 minutes were so worth it!

Since we live in a college town, weekend grocery shopping entails not only maneuvering among the usual shoppers, but also college students (who only seem to shop in groups, for some reason grocery shopping is not something that can be done alone), and tailgaters. Today was not a home game, so I dodged that bullet and mostly had to contend with other families hauling around the enormous car-carts.

Baby C began to fuss about halfway through the store and after substantial bouncing, he fell asleep in his wrap. I had to use one hand to cradle his head and the other to push the "big rig" of carts and needless to say, I ran into a few things (but not any shoppers, thankfully). By the time I got to the check-out line (the only check-out lane that is big enough for the car-carts) I was seriously questioning why I had bothered to exercise before I left the house. I one-handedly unloaded the grocery cart until a very nice man (a father of six!) offered to help me unload. I got everything to the van and unloaded the groceries, loaded the boys, and headed home very happy that Randy was getting home first and could unload the groceries from the van.

I think I'll stick to going grocery shopping after the kids have gone to bed.