Oh Boy It's Grocery Shopping Time

CamCam is banned from Hannaford. They didn't ban him, I have. Although, I'm certain if I continue to bring him, it won't be much longer before they are the ones to impose the ban so I thought I'd beat them to the punch and save some of my sanity in the process. I see the way the employees look at me when I'm in the store, I'm sure it's just a matter of time. I bet they have a chart on me out back, and every offense gets measured against the amount of money we spend in their store. The manager is probably like: "Well, yes, we did get another complaint about her, however the person complaining is an infrequent customer and CamCam's mommy is spending exuberant amounts of money here and is always taken in by our supposed great deals and I do want that summer home, soooo... we won't ban her son yet."

CamCam hates sitting in the grocery cart. He wants me to hold him or he wants to get down and run. Obviously I can't have him down and running everywhere, the doors open automatically to the store and he'd probably leave without me. And I have "The Baby" in the moby wrap so I cannot carry CamCam. So he spends a lot of time standing on the cart seat, leaning forward with his arms wrapped around my neck trying to get me to hold him. Every time I enter the store, they have those car type carts and I wonder if that would keep him happy. However they wouldn't hold all the groceries I need, and they usually look pretty yucky inside. The other day I had a moment of weakness though. "Mr. Trouble" begged to use the fun car cart and it actually looked clean inside for once. I was trying to not spend so much that week, so maybe the smaller basket would help me in that endeavor. I caved and said yes, get into the car.

YAY!!!! Two excited little bodies scrambled over each other to get into the car before mommy changed her mind. Holy cow- that thing is like driving a train! It's so heavy! "Mr. Trouble" and CamCam are so happy with their steering wheels though. However, CamCam decides that maybe "Mr. Trouble's" steering wheel is better then his and wants to try it out. I'm getting carrots when I hear a loud BANG! Some "funny guy" walking by smiles and says "That sounded like a head." "Mr. Trouble" had pushed CamCam and his head hit the side of the cart. CamCam is wailing now, and rightly so. Now CamCam has the car to himself, and he thinks this is great. He can spread his legs out, sit in the middle, run both steering wheels at once! We get a cookie at the bakery, and it's even better! Why are bakery cookies so crumbly? I swear they grow as they crumble. I have no idea how one tiny cookie can make such a big mess. Now I know why these car-carts always look so yucky- ours has now started a food collection at the bottom and a lovely smeared cookie hand print portfolio is gathering on the seat and steering wheels.

Once the cookie is gone, CamCam decides he's done with the car and wants out. We're on aisle 2!!!!!! That's it! This stupid car lost it's novelty at aisle 2! CamCam is throwing a fit, hanging his head, legs, arms, any body part he can get out the side and over the edge. If his entire body cannot be free of this car, at least a part of him can! Then he starts twisting to try and get out. He somehow maneuvers down and his shirt is up so the seat belt is being pulled tight against his bare belly and chest. I sit him up normally, but he immediately twists down again. This is when the looks from other grocery store shoppers start. Couple more negative marks going on my chart, better grab an extra box of crackers.

Spaghetti aisle and the pretty blue boxes are too much to resist! Out shoots a little arm to grab one. I'm still moving, so instead of one he knocks down a bunch of them. One more mark on my chart! CamCam loves goldfish, so I give him a bag to snack on. This makes him very happy. I get a round of applause from him as I'm trying to open the bag- he can't wait! He happily settles down to eating his goldfish and playing with them. He picks one up, and has it "swim" and talks his little babble for the goldfish, and then CHOMP! Big big laugh from CamCam- why do boys love to play this way? Poor little defenseless goldfish happily swimming along and they think it's funny to come along and chomp it to bits. Oh well, at least he's happy. At some point I feel my cart roll over something crunchy. I look, and I've just rolled over an entire bag of goldfish dumped all over the floor. Guess that's his way of telling me he's done with them. Wonder how many marks on my chart this will be?

At the checkout aisle, Houdini CamCam has finally wiggled his way out of the seat belt, sort of. I look down and he's pretty much laying across the floor with his 2 feet stuck in the car. He's using his hands to "walk", but I don't think I can leave him this way. Out he goes! He's finally free! He runs to the movie rental machine just opposite the checkout counter. All these colorful pictures at kid level- hey look! There's a picture of Sponge Bob! And Dorra! Hey, let's bang on them as hard as I can, maybe I can make them come out!

How many marks on my "bad chart" do you think it would be if he broke the machine???