Clara in the grocery store

On Tuesday we went grocery shopping.  With the exception of when she was first able to ride in the front of the cart at eight or nine months, Clara hates grocery shopping.  Usually we can make it at least to the dairy section before she gets antsy, but Tuesday she got restless before we were even out of produce.

"Mommy, me!  Me!" she said while I bagged some apples.

"You may not hold these," I said.  I gave her a yellow pepper instead.  She looked at it briefly and tossed it in the back of the cart.  A few minutes later, I gave her a bag of Kettle Brand Cheddar and Sour Cream Chips to hold.  She shook it and enjoyed the interesting sound.

At the end of the toothpaste and shampoo aisle, she started to twist and squirm.

"Mooommmmy!" she said.  I bent over to kiss her and she twined her arms around my neck and pulled until she was standing.  From there it was simply a matter of wrapping her legs around my waist, and she was free of the cart.  She put her head on my shoulder.  Docile.  Just snuggling.

We rounded the corner, and she twisted to put her hands on the shopping cart handle. "Mommy!  Me! Down!"

"Alright, but you must stay right here.  And no touching anything on the shelves, alright?"

"Hes," she nodded her head and smiled.  I put her on the floor in front of me and she began to push the cart, holding onto the front of the basket.

I grabbed the handle to stop the cart while I examined the cereal.

"Mommy!!  No! No! No!"

"I have to stop, Hon.  I have to look at which cereal we want.  Hey, look!  Do you see the gorilla on the front of this cereal box?  What sound does a gorilla make?  Ooo-Ooo-Ooo."

But she wasn't paying attention.  She'd found an enormous canister of Folgers and was attempting to pull it off the shelf.

"Clara!"

She shrieked in joy and took off running.  She ran out of the aisle and in front of several shopping carts. "Hi! Hi!" she shouted.  She quickly came upon the bulk foods section and thrust her hand into a bin of peppermint salt water taffy.

I carried her on my hip through most of the rest of the store, and managed to get her back into the cart just before we checked out.  I leaned forward until my face was close to hers.

"Clara, I love it when you help me.  You are Mama's good helper.  But right now Mama needs to go fast, and you can help me by sitting quietly in the cart so Mama can go fast and we can go home and play.  Alright?"

I gave her a sippy cup full of juice.  She watched me put groceries on the check-out belt for a minute, and then placed her sippy cup on it.

"Can you please pretend to scan it?" I asked the checker.

"Uh, sure," he said.  He was too young to have kids.  He smiled and asked Clara's age, but I suspected he was thinking about something else.

"Beep," I said as he passed the sippy cup over the sensor.