My Rite of Passage

I think it is safe to say that shopping with children can be tough. Well, I know that I only have one baby and you probably think, man, grocery shopping with that small three month old that can't run away would be easy, and it probably wasn't that bad, but I feel as though I have passed through a small rite of passage as a mom. After the weekend, we literally had no food. Allowing my food supply to get to nothing before I go shopping is one of my favorite things. Since there are only two of us that eat real food, it is easy to let things go bad, and so hence the eating EVERYTHING before I finally go shopping. This was my first time to go alone with William. I usually have Mike go with me, but I figured I didn't have much else to do and since William can't run away, it wouldn't be that bad. Well, we got to the grocery store and I carried him in the store in his carseat. I was being very optimistic thinking that he would just sit in his seat and we would happily go along filling our cart with delicious food. I pictured William smiling and gooing at me as I walked up the aisle humming to the peaceful music in the background. HA! Right, I should have realized this was simply a fantasy. After much effort on my part to carry him in (i am still a little weakling) I put his seat on the top part of the cart. For some reason, this grocery stores little kid seat thing at the top was smaller than other grocery stores and his carseat didn't fit right. It made him either be sitting almost upright, or laying almost upside down. I realized that wasn't going to work. I then tried to put his seat inside the cart, but then I knew that wasn't going to work because his seat took up the WHOLE cart and like I said, I needed to do MAJOR shopping. At this point I was pretty hot from lugging that seat back and forth and so I had to take off my coat. William was getting really upset so I got him out of his seat. I was now holding William and looking at my shopping cart that was already full with his seat, diaper bag, and my coat. I realized I didn't need all that stuff and should take it back to the car, but because it was so cold I just couldn't face doing that. It had now been several minutes and I must have been quite the sight trying to rearrange the cart while holding william. I finally put all his stuff in his seat at the top and held William in my left arm and decided I was going to have to learn to shop one handed. By the end of getting my produce, my arm was already killing, but I knew I could do this...I had been in more pain than this before! I continued to shop pulling a heavy cart and holding William. This was my first time at this grocery store and so I didn't know where a lot of things were and so I ended going up and down aisles more than necessary. A lot of people gave me that "oh you poor lady" look. After a stop at the bathroom half-way through to nurse William so he would stop crying, I finally made it to the check out counter. I unloaded all the groceries (of course one armed) and then paid. This is when I realized I had a problem. Groceries always take up more space when put in bags and I now had two full stopping carts. I decided I couldn't do it alone. Even though this store didn't have a drive-up place or people to help you to your car, I asked one of the workers to help me. He was so nice and loaded all the groceries in my trunk. Finally we made it home and I carried William in. Another dilemma...what do I do with William why I carry in all of those groceries. I put him in the swing and hoped he would be ok and I ran to the car which was parked kind of far from our door. By putting in a he-woman effort, I was able to get all the groceries carried in in 3 trips! Yikes. I was exhausted. The good thing is that I have learned my lesson about a couple things and next time I think I will leave William home with Mike! I feel like I should have a sign above my door that says "WELCOME TO MOTHERHOOD JUDI". I have passed the grocery store rite of passage!

-Judi