Shopping with three

Before Molly was born I still took Alivia and Marlin almost everywhere I went. They were good at the grocery store and if they weren't I could put one in the seat of the cart and one in the back and race through the store getting just what I needed.

Now that I have three children I have sworn many times that I am NEVER taking them all to the grocery store again. Every time I have said it I have meant it from the bottom of my soul. At least for a year I do not plan to take all three kids to the store.

Unfortunately I keep forgetting the details of why exactly it is so hard to take all the kids to the store so yesterday when I needed diapers and Matt was at Mike and Cortney's helping cut down some trees, so I took the kids to Kroger. Big mistake.

I should have known when I was picking Alivia up at the babysitter and she had to have a time out before we could go that it was not a good day for shopping. (but I had one diaper for molly left) Despite the warnings, we went anyway.

While unloading the children from the car into the 3 degree winter air Alivia was saying, I don't like shopping, I don't want to go shopping. I grabbed Marlin's hand and Molly's car seat and said "come on lets run" and we all ran into the store. The big kids thought that was fun for 30 seconds. Then we hit the carts. Alivia wanted the huge cart with the big plastic attachment that two kids can sit in and ride together. The problem is that they can reach each other and they like to climb in and out of it constantly while bickering and bothering each other so I said no, put molly's car seat in the front of a normal cart and we headed into the store.

I will admit that it is nice to have them begging for fruit. Alivia ran to the cut up watermelon and started screaming, "buy me this mama, I'm starving." We have been working on how to ask nicely (for four years) so the watermelon was not an option. Now we had an unhappy Alivia, (more unhappy than the winy one that I dragged out of the car) to get the rest of the way through the grocery store. Luckily I only needed diapers. We headed for the diaper isle, on the way Marlin and Alivia asked for everything that was on a shelf and lower than 3 feet. We finally got the diapers and Alivia announce that she needed to go to the bathroom. Instead of rushing I went to the self check and paid for the groceries that I was buying. Somehow only getting diapers turned into 50 dollars worth of groceries...of course.

By the time I had paid for the groceries she had to go and the bathrooms were right there. I opened the door and told her to go in and I would wait right here with marlin, molly and the cart of groceries. She wanted me to go with her. I tried to explain that she had gone in that bathroom by herself before, there was no one in there, and that I couldn't fit the cart in there so we would wait out here. She refused to go and we headed home. Then she started screaming, "I have to peee really bad!" A lady came over and informed me that Alivia needed to use the potty. Grrr no kidding lady back off you have no idea what you are jumping into here.
I took Alivia back to the bathroom and she went in. I waited about 20 seconds with the little kids then I pushed the door open to check on her. She was standing there in a puddle of pee. So we left the store and headed into the 5 degree winter air with wet pants and all. I love all three children with all my heart BUT I am never taking them all to the store again.