After my last trip to the grocery store with Ellie, I decided she was banned for awhile. This was really disappointing because I really enjoyed grocery shopping with her. But after two weeks in a row of her not cooperating, I had to do it. BANNED until further notice.
Instead of doing the grocery shopping on Monday morning as usual, I did it Sunday evening. This happens to be the worst time to go grocery shopping. I find the only benefit of doing this was leaving Ellie at home. But I’m not so sure it was even worth it.
First of all, everything is picked over leaving either nothing, or just the bruised fruit and vegetables nobody wants. I had about three items on my list I couldn’t get. Not enough to warrant an additional trip, but enough to annoy you.
Secondly, there are too many people, and the wrong kind. On Monday mornings, most of the people are there because they want to be. This is their designated time to go shopping. These people are on a mission. They may be people who move too slow and dilly dally around, but they are precise with what they put in their baskets. But on Sundays, most people are there because they have to be. They have run out of food and they are desperate to fill the fridge with food. You’ll see many buggies with a mountain of food, cases of soda hanging over the edges, and 40 pound bags of dog food or kitty litter underneath the cart. You’d think you were at Costco. I was a Monday shopper being stuck going on a Sunday. It just wasn’t meshing.  The chemistry wasn’t right. As I walked by people, they were probably commenting, “look at this Monday shopper and his bag of organic spinach, who does he think he is?”
After two weeks of shopping in an alternate universe on Sundays, I decided I missed my shopping buddy and would consider lifting the ban. Maybe the new nap situation I had going on would help regulate her mood. I needed to do a dry run before I made the final call though. I decided Target would be the best place to give this a go. Riding in the buggy would be fun at Target, right? What woman out there doesn’t like Target? Aya had said many times, “If I could marry Target, I would.” I think all women young and old love Target. It’s in their genetic code now.
Ellie’s naptime begins sometime between 1:00-1:30pm now. We arrived at Target about 10:30am making this a perfect time. Not too close to naptime, and it was after breakfast and a diaper change. I had received a few suggestions on how to keep Ellie occupied in the buggy. “Give her a toy to occupy her.” As if it’s always that easy. “Just give her a toy… just strap her in tighter… Just do this… just do that…” BAH!
The purpose of going to Target was to get a toy for this very reason. We’ll see what a toy does. When we walked in and I went to put Ellie in the buggy, she had a meltdown. Kicking her legs, crying, flipping backwards to the point where she almost flipped over the edge. Just strap her in right? I would if I could get her legs in the holes. And once I did, if I could only get her to stop flailing about to not hit her head. Obviously, this was not working so I picked her up and headed straight to the toy aisle.
I picked the same toy she has and loves at grandmas. A toy cellphone. I gave her the package to play with and she lit up with a smile. But when I went to put her in the buggy, the same thing happened. Just give her a toy, right? So I held her longer. Then she didn’t want to be held. She wanted to run, not walk, through the store with her new cellphone and point at everything. “Dis… dis… dis… dis…” I tried bribing her with all kinds of other things. I pulled out just about everything from pockets except the kitchen sink to distract her, but it just didn’t work.
I suppose Target was a bad place to try the dry run. Target proved to be just too stimulating for this little girl. Like mother like daughter… I should have seen this coming. Maybe I should have tried something a little less exciting like Sears. But as for now, the ban still stands.
Love the picture/graphic…:-)… We had to ban Zayna from restaurants for awhile after a particularly bad visit to Red Lobster… She literally screamed bloody murder whenever the waiter approached our table…. Talk about awkward! Bans are useful and occasionally necessary….