A Shopping Excursion

I went to Target today.  With Evelyn.  I'm really the luckiest new mom in the world.  I have a sister and a husband who allow me to go wherever I need to, basically whenever I need to, without a child in tow.  In the past I have generally planned all of my errands when one of them is around.  Once in a while I would take Evelyn, but it's just a pain in the butt!

Now that she's sitting up, though, I figure that it's time to start doing what most other mothers have to do on a daily basis and take my kid places.  With her sitting up, I can finally stop lugging the carseat or stroller in and out of places, and I can actually sit her in a cart.  I decided Target was going to be our first excursion today.

I planned the trip.  I made a shopping list so that I wasn't wandering aimlessly.  I even organized it according to department.  Ok, not really, but I should have to save the zig zagging I ended up doing even with a list.  I actually also planned out where I was going to park.  I know some places have parent and child parking, but in my opinion, a spot close to the door isn't the prime parking.  It's the spot next to the cart return.  You can get a cart before you even take your kid out of the car, and you can put her back in the car and easily return the cart.  I felt like a genius for figuring this out before I parked the car.  So I got to Target and found my spot right next to the cart return.

I have a shopping cart cover.  It floats around my car and the directions are in my diaper bag, unread.  I mean, honestly, you plop the thing in the cart and you go, right?  Wrong.  I felt like the biggest moron.  I couldn't figure out how to get it over the back of the child seat and line up the leg holes.  In the meantime my child was sitting in the car in the 90 degree weather.  I finally just said whatever, made sure the leg holes of the cover were lined up with the leg holes on the cart and strapped her in.  

It took about three minutes in the store for Evelyn to find the exposed cart handle.  How the heck is that stupid thing supposed to protect them if they can reach the handle?  I tried laying it over the handle, but the minute she moved, the handle was exposed again.  And whenever I stopped the cart to try to adjust the seat, she got fussy, even though I timed my trip for immediately after nap and feeding.  I got over it the fact that she was picking up every germ known to man and decided to keep moving.

At that precise moment, Super Mom rounded the corner.  She was perfectly coiffed, khakis, cardigan set, pearls, and two perfectly behaved kids in tow.  And there I was (unshowered) in my Old Navy tank, jean shorts, ponytail, and headband.  My kid was putting her hands all over the dirty cart, while hers sat in the perfectly covered cart, hands basically folded in his lap.  I tried my best to look unfazed, even confident as I gave her a look that said, "Yea, my kid touches the cart.  But it's cool because by the time she starts day care she'll be immune to everything short of the Ebola virus and your kids will be at the doctor every week with an ear infection!  Just wait, in point two seconds she's going to drop her pacifier on the ground and I'm going to clean it with my mouth and give it right back to her."  Not that her kids will go to day care, but someday they'll come in contact with another kid, and then she'll wish they had touched the germy shopping cart!

I hustled along to the next aisle, and promptly adjusted my cart cover to match hers.  It really was amazing how one little adjustment, and suddenly it fit.  I finally had a safe cart.

I swear she knows how to sit up, it's just that shopping really wears her out!

All in all, it was a successful shopping trip.  I got everything on my list, including baby food!  We're starting solids everyone.  And because I didn't know what food to start with, and there are a lot of choices, and it was on sale, I got two of everything.