Wednesday, April 05, 2006

Grocery Trauma

A word of extra-crunchy wisdom from Mrs. Peanut:

Do not attempt shopping for a large haul of groceries with a 3 year old and a 9 month old, if you are (1) shopping alone, and (2) must park in an underground garage which is a walk and an elevator ride away from your apartment door. To quote Colonel Brandon in Austen's Sense and Sensibility: "The result can only be ruination and despair."

. . . and milk that looks like this:



. . . and pears that look like this:



Fortunately, the children and myself all returned intact, though I was huffing and puffing from the best cardio workout I've had in quite some time. Yet again, the little peanuts rose to the occasion, and were wonderful in the store, in the parking garage, on the elevator, down the hall, back down the hall in the opposite direction, back down the elevator, back up the elevator, and down the hall yet again. Miss was giddy from her lollipop reward received at the checkstand, and Master was busily chewing on the side of the community shopping cart, ingesting germs from heaven-knows-whom. Through it all, they were quite oblivious to my plight, other than the time when Miss looked at me with some concern as I tried to lift the front of the shopping cart in order to hoist it into the elevator, all the while holding the elevator door open with my backside.

"Mommy? What. Are. You. Doing?"

"Just . . . (pant, pant) trying . . . (pant, pant) . . . to get . . . . this cart . . . in (pant) the . . . elevator . . . sweetie."

"Oh. OK!! I loooove the escalavator!"

In spite of Miss's enjoyment of the extra "escalavator" rides, I do believe that Mr. Peanut will accompany me on future stock-up shopping trips.

No comments: