What a Difference 3 Months Makes

So I went grocery shopping this morning. I have learned that there are several factors which are necessary to make a successful grocery shopping trip with two small boys (and by successful, I mean a trip that does not end in tears or an excessive amount of sweating on my part). These factors include, but are not limited to:

1) Getting the giant grocery cart with the toddler car attached to the front. Yes, it's embarassing to push and very difficult to manuver (I've rammed it into many a display and have sideswiped many a cart), but it's worth it.

2) Fruit snacks and/or (preferably "and") suckers (Dum-Dums are small so you don't feel as bad about bribing your child with them).

3) Using a Baby Bjorn for the wee one instead of the carseat, which is too hard to see over. Plus, the Baby Bjorn tends to make my wee one fall asleep and stay happy.

With these factors in place I can generally have a nice and fairly relaxing grocery shopping trip. I still don't dawdle inside, but I no longer have to race around at warp speed trying to get through the store before my childrens' patience runs out. Let's contrast this with my first grocery shopping experience with two kids, shall we? Here is an excerpt from an email I sent to Ben in August after my first grocery shopping trip post-Sam:

Wow, grocery shopping with two kids is nuts. Got in the car, forgot the list and the coupon. Drove back home, booked it upstairs (kids still in car) to get them (coupon expired of course). Got to the store, they were out of their big carts (the ones with toddler seats in front that look like trucks). So poor Noah had to sit in the back of the cart among all the groceries (he organized them all for me). Sam got hungry basically right away. Luckily I thought to bring the bottle of expressed milk from the fridge so I was steering the cart with one hand (very hard since it was so heavy with 2 kids and groceries in it) and feeding Sam with the other and somehow still putting groceries in the cart. Same thing with loading groceries in the car (tried to load and feed Sam simultaneously). Got home, made a bunch of runs up/down the stairs while Noah played in the car and Sam came with me in the sling until he fell asleep and I was able to put him in the bouncy. In the middle of all of this, the shelf in the door of the refrigerator broke and so did a jar of relish so I had to clean all of that up. Then Sam woke up and wanted to finish the bottle. Finally have him sleeping again and Noah is eating lunch (very well, by the way). Now I have to finish putting the groceries away and clean the kitchen, get Noah down for a nap, and eat myself. And pretty soon I really need to pump because since Sam had a bottle and didn't breastfeed earlier, I'm leaking all over the place. Oh, by the way, Jewel was out of your yogurts. I’ll try to go to Ashland later today to get them. Or maybe we’ll walk down and pick you up at the train tonight. Then we can go together so one of us can just run in and not deal with getting the stroller through the bars.