Accomplishment
9:30 — Nurse the baby, direct children to get their shoes on and get in their car seats. Call the children and give them the store reminders: At stores you do not wrestle or run. Stores are not playgrounds or racetracks. In the road, stay next to me. At WalMart, help me get through the store quickly. At WinCo, be my helpers. At Costco, stay near me and don’t touch things we aren’t going to buy. No fussing, no whining, no fighting, no complaining. You boys are my helpers.
9:45 — Grab clipboard with lists, stick it in my bag of bags, buckle in the baby, put on my shades.
9:50 — WalMart. Purchase included underwear and Pull-Ups for Ilse and a $5 sundress for Ilse and a $5 deep pink cardigan for myself.
10:30 — On our way to WinCo for May’s stock-up trip.
11:00 — We are in the midst of the bulk section, where we spend the bulk of our WinCo time. Ilse is in the cart, Knox is wrapped and worn, Hans and Jaeger are writing numbers on the tags for me.
11:45 — After bagging the groceries, the boys enjoy a donut — and Ilse and Mama do, too. I did have to translate 2 bulk tags for the checker.
11:55 — Mama pulls through Mocha Express and buys a triple Almond Roca latte with a gift certificate given her as a (much appreciated) baby gift.
noon — Costco! Ilse in the seat of the cart, and Knox in his carseat mounted next to her (I love Costco carts!).
12:15 — In the produce department a lady looks at me, and I thought she was giving me the “You’re insane” look. Instead, however, she said, “You sure are brave! 4 children? Look at them! Good for you!”
Hans, of course, is reading this as I type, and he commented, “I think she thought you were insane for wearing your fat sunglasses on your head. They really are fat.”
1:15 — Our receipt is marked with a smiley face on our way out, Knox is still sleeping, and the boys are sharing a “Pepsi-Dew” (Yes, I’m afraid so.) and a hot dog.
1:18 — We all actually fit into the vehicle! It’s a feat of engineering.
1:25 — 1 minute from home and Knox wakes up and realizes he is STARVING.
1:30 — I contemplate how long unloading the car and putting away the groceries will take me while I nurse the baby and check my email.
Have you emptied the groceries yet? I get off work at 3pm and could lend a hand.
Oh, I just did get them in, otherwise I certainly would have taken you up on that! :) Thanks!
We call the smiley face on the receipt “Costco Bob.” The kids are always disappointed when we get a check mark!
Costco Bob — that’s great! :) Costco provided my boys with their first public speaking opportunities. Their desire for a smiley face was so strong that they were willing to actually talk to someone they didn’t know and ask politely for a smiley face. :)
Talking to strangers is not my boys’ problem.. I’ve had to forbid them to ask the Costco receipt checkers to draw airplanes, jets, and or anything else. :-) Just the smiley face, thanks. :-)
I went to all of those places yesterday… though it was just my husband, baby Moses and I. Having an older boy, we are sometimes able to leave all children older than infant at home. It can be nice to not lug six kiddos along to the stores, and when we do I’m sure you can imagine the faces!!! I have taught my children to hold on to the side of the cart and walk along with me. So we have baby in wrap, twins in cart, two children holding on to either side of cart and oldest walking, pushing a second cart to actually put things in. We are a sight! Congratulations on everything going so well!
Wow, Mystie…You know, I would of held that baby for you and watched the kids or at least helped with groceries!
Tonya, when we got home your van wasn’t there, otherwise I probably would have come seeking carrying help. :) If Bethany’s had been there I would have been right over, assuming my brother was there, too. ;)
When Ilse was a baby I did several months of grocery shopping by myself, but I found that when I then did have to take the kids to the store they were out of practice and misbehaved. But when they are in practice, they are trained to be helpers and they actually are helpful and they get more and more so every year. So, I figure being able to go out with four kids and not have them or me go crazy is my just reward for training them — and their reward, also. :)
Now, short, run in and run out errands are maddening with four children in carseats, strollers, and wraps. When I have errands like that I will gladly take you up on your baby-holding offer! :) Thank you. :)
Talking to people is not a problem for us, either. Lucy is constantly asking what people’s names are. I let her ask politely when we’re interacting with them (the cashier, for example), but I’m trying to discourage her asking random people we pass in the aisle.
Oh, the joys of running lots of quick errands with no children!