Grocery shopping with my children is usually unpleasant at best. I'm sure most parents have been in similar situations; children screaming while you unload the cart, a toddler wanting to run up and down every aisle, and people staring at you like you are torturing your children, instead of the other way around.
I have rearranged my schedule so that shopping only involves the kids under extreme circumstances. Store tantrums, however, have only been part of the motivation for this. As soon as Christian outgrew his infant car seat, shopping became a little bit more of a challenge. An infant car seat can come right out of the car, and be placed in a shopping cart, making it a piece of cake to take the baby in the store. Most often, when a child outgrows this seat, they are able to sit in the shopping cart and so there isn't an issue in the store. Well this was not the case with Christian. He was miles away from sitting in the shopping cart when he outgrew the handy traveling car seat.
I got creative. I would stick Tessie in the shopping cart, put Christian in a sling or baby pack, and try to shop as quickly as possible. Unloading the cart this way was no fun, since Christian wasn't so tiny at this point, and it usually took me twice as long. I started looking around for a shopping cart cover with some major strap support. Most carts, or cart covers, have one small strap that goes accross a child's waist and doesn't serve much of a purpose other than keeping the child from climbing out of the cart. Well I was not worried about Christian climbing anywhere. I finally found a cover with soulder straps, and if I ran them through the back of the cart's seat, and rolled up towels on either side of him, I could get through most of the store before I had to carry him, or he was completly falling over.
Lately Christian's sitting has been getting so good, that the last few times I took him to the store he sat in the shopping cart with no support. It wasn't perfect, he still slumped over every few minutes, and I didn't let my hand stray far. But today a miracle occured. I took Christian into the store and he sat, unsuported, besides the useless strap, the whole time we were in the store. I even wandered away from the cart to get something off a shelf, an he kept sitting. At times he was only holding on with one hand, waving to people in the store. He sat straight and tall, with pride all over his face, our entire twenty minutes in the store. My life has just changed.
It is these little differences in Christian lately, that are making the biggest impacts on our lives. Being able to take him on quick trips to the grocery store, having him play by himself in his room for ten minutes without needing me to sit him up again, or sitting straight enough in his high chair to be able to try using a spoon to eat with. These may seem like small things, but they are not. They are, in fact, little miracles. Just imagine lugging a, very heavy, toddler around for every small errand, even to walk into another room, and you may feel a little of this miracle. Christian looked like such a big boy in that cart today, and having my easiest trip to the grocery store with him, well ever, was simply beautiful.
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