Lesson learned.

I thought I had figured out the secret to grocery shopping with three children. People would say "you know you do not take all three of them". Well, sometimes you have to. It dawned on me about a month ago that the "ticket" to a successful trip is the "customer in training" shopping carts (kid carts). It worked beautifully until our last trip. The first bit of advice is never say "It is easy. They push their own cart and you can get your grocery shopping done." Once you say this you have officially jinxed yourself and are sure to have trouble. After the latest experience, I realized that you must stick to a few Mama Rules.

Mama Rules:

1. must be a short list not "big shopping"

2. each must have their own cart

3. always walk behind them

4. have extra suckers

Kid Rules:

1. Mama can only put things in your cart. (This rule was created during our first trip when I turned and saw 7 mustard bottles in Cannon's cart.)

2. Walk. (Also created during first 2 minutes of first trip for both boys.)

Well, I am to blame for our terrible experience (let me retract that and say my terrible experience) because I broke 3 out of 4 Mama Rules. I broke rule #1 because I had too many things to get which caused us to have a longer grocery trip. I also made the painful mistake of walking ahead (see rule #3)which resulted in a metal cart that was being pushed a little too fast ramming into my heel (I had on flip flops). Pain. Holy #!*@ that hurts kind of pain! I also broke rule #4 by having only one sucker for Landry. I seriously contemplated putting it back in her mouth after it fell onto the floor only 3 minutes into the trip. If other people weren't on the aisle I probably would have. In fact, I know I would have. So now, with no sucker Landry spent the rest of the trip trying to stand in the cart and get out. So, I take the blame for a lot.

Cade did great. I think he could sense me being completely aggravated and was doing perfect. Cannon on the other hand didn't sense the rage that was brewing or just didn't care because he decided to run and push his cart as hard as he could to see how far it would go only to hit another cart. He also had a huge "melt down" in the chips aisle because Cade said he had tried cheese balls at preschool and liked them and wanted to get a bag. I told Cade he could get a small bag. Cannon said he wanted a bag too. When I told him no he ran and grabbed a bag anyway and yelled "I want some banana balls too!" (I guess he confused banana with cheese ...not sure). He also decided to open one of the containers of yogurt I put in his cart to see what kind it was. I caught him with yogurt on the nose as he was trying to open another yogurt cup (you guessed it) to see what kind it was. He then took the package of yogurt and threw it on the floor only to cause the one he had been trying to open to pop open. I know it sounds like Cannon needed a spanking and a big spanking at that. If I could have gotten three carts and three children to a bathroom I would have spanked him but, my goal at that point was to get to the front, pay, and leave. FAST.

So, what I learned is to make sure you stick to the Mama Rules and never say that you have something figured out.