It's a bird... it's a plane... it's a blue-hair!!

(Liam... stop mauling your sister!!!!!)

Yesterday I took both kids to the grocery store for the first time. Together. Both of them. Not a big deal for many, but for me, it took a lot of mustering up of courage to attempt it. The night before I even discussed it at length with Chad. Should I leave Mallory in her car seat and put that in the grocery cart? Should I use one of the carts with the built in baby seat, and let Liam walk? In the end, I decided to use the Snugli. Mallory really seems to like it, and I am all about keeping things easy these days.

I ran through every possible scenario in advance, and had it all planned out:

*park the car

*go get a cart

*put Liam in the cart

*then strap on the Snugli and load Mallory into it

*shop

*return to car

*unload Mallory first

*unload Liam second

*unload groceries third

This thought and planning was required because of the lifting issues created by the Snugli itself. It takes care of the baby, yes, but does limit your mobility in other ways.

Anyway, I made it through my whole grocery shop beautifully. Mallory dozed her way through it. Liam didn't throw a fit when I refused to open a bar of cheese right there in the store and let him have some. The checkout girls admired the kids. And then... we went outside. And it was pouring rain. I mean, it was cats and dogs rain. It hadn't been raining at all when we went into the store, and I had checked the forecast before we left the house... and they hadn't been calling for it.

So there we are, we three, no coats on, no umbrellas, and this was not a nice mild summer rain, but a cold, miserable kind of rain. We're standing under the store overhang and I'm trying to decide what to do, when an elderly woman comes up to me. She must have been at least 80. She says she saw us come into the store and she is parked right next to us and she has two umbrellas in her car, and won't I please let her go get one for me? I try declining, and she won't hear of it. She runs out to her car and comes back with both umbrellas and a raincoat for me. Then she tries to wrangle my cart away from me and push it herself. At least I had the good sense not to let her do that. It turned out she had no idea where I was parked, so I'm not sure who she saw come in in our place; but she did help us all get loaded into the car safe and sound and dry.

So, I admit defeat on the grocery front - obviously, I was not prepared for every scenario. One of these days, there will be no senior citizens around to come to my rescue. I had better get my act together before then.

On a happier note... here are my cool new boots!