Reserved For Parents With Infants

Today is Friday and that means we need to go to the grocery store. In this house, we are die-hard, dedicated Ukrops shoppers. We don't go anywhere else. Well...unless it's Sunday and we absolutely have to have something right that very minute. Then we might break down and sneak over to Kroger. In disguise, of course, because we wouldn't want anyone to see us there.

For those of you who aren't from this area, Ukrops is a grocery store chain in Virginia. They still bring your groceries to the car for you and help you load them in. At this point in my life, that's reason enough to shop there! By the time I get both kids through the store and the checkout line, I'm just thrilled to have someone offer to help me out a little.

So on Fridays we get up, get breakfast, and get dressed to go out. Now that only took me 4 seconds to write, but it takes, like two hours to accomplish! I don't know why. It just does. So then we head out to the car. I lock Daniel's carseat into the base while Brenna climbs in on her side. Then we sit in the driveway for...oh...at least 10 minutes while we all wait for Brenna to get her seatbelt buckled. Now, I could do that for her and we'd be almost to the store by now, but noooo...I want her to learn to do it herself. And so we wait.

Usually the actual shopping part of the trip isn't too bad. Brenna is old enough to be in charge of the list. Once we're settled with a cart, I give her the list and a pen. She is in charge of marking off the items once they are put in the cart. She's getting pretty good at that too. And so we begin our weekly trek around the store - through the produce, back to the meat (where Brenna inevitable decides she's either too hot or too cold and either needs a coat or wants to take hers off.) After we've picked up some chicken, we have to stop and check out the lobsters climbing all over each other in tank. Right about then, Brenna remembers that the bakery ladies give out free cookies to the kids so we end up going back through the meat and the produce to the bakery where we wait politely for someone to ask if they can help. Cookie in hand we begin the up and down push through the aisles. At least twice on every aisle, it is required, I'm sure of it, that four year olds ask their moms for something really cool. These things include but are not limited to string cheese, pirate booty, special holiday candy, yogurt with a mix-in on top, chocolate milk, Sunny D, chocolate lucky charms, pretzels, popcorn, Dora soup, Dora cereal, Dora spaghettios, Dora crackers, and Dora paper cups for her bathroom because she's running out even though we just bought a box of ninety last week.

Finally, the four year old with the list announces that we have marked off all the items on the list and we head to the checkout. Things get a little tricky here too because I would like to watch the prices as they are rung up. However, I'm stuck unloading the cart while the cashier, who is secretly trying to keep up with me, is scanning items at the speed of light. So when I'm finished he's finished. By this point Brenna is very tired of being in the grocery store. Her job is finished and she feels the need wonder aimlessly all around the check-out aisle. Thinking of all this makes me wonder how many times I say her name in the course of a trip to Ukrops. I bet 75% of them are in the checkout lane! Anyway, by this point, I'm glad to have the help in getting back to the car. So I swing that infant carseat over my arm, take hold of Brenna's hand and lead the bag boy to our car, which I have gratefully parked in the spot with the sign that reads, "Reserved for parents with infants.".