Shopping with Kids

Shopping with kids...What an adventure!! some days are fine, only a rag doll (meaning, limp flopping on the ground) melt down or two, some days are heck just getting OUT the door. when these meltdowns happen in the store or anywhere, actually, i stand my ground, don't care about how embarrassed she's making me(cause really, why do i care what the person staring at me looking at me like I'm a bad mom thinks??), i refuse to be bullied.

some days when i KNOW the reason to the whining(missing nap - my fault) i will pick a toy, or let her choose one, like today. It can go one of two ways. she will play with it for a minute, tell me she "donwanit" and hand it back, then proceed to breakdown every 5 minutes. Those days, i hurry to get shopping done and get her to bed as fast as humanly possible; or she'll just talk and gibber jabber away.

Today was a missing nap day, but i needed to get groceries (what was missed last night). So, being a mom that wants her kid happy, i decided to go the toy route (which can be a hit or miss game) today it started out as a doodlebops keyboard, then the doodlebops guitar, then a backyardagins game that was too old for her, she looked at Elmo (the tmx one) and kept saying "gethimout" meaning let him out of the box. i told her only if he was bought. She didn't' want, "bye bye Elmo" then i found a Diego doll. Diego is her best friend ever (i guess in her mind) and will change her whole attitude if she's watching it or its about to come on and she gets threatened to tell Diego bye bye.

so, i see how much Diego is, not impressed with the "clearance price" so i let her hold it and we go down the "Diego/Dora" aisle. She then saw click (the camera) and Diego went bye bye fora talking camera. I tried to get her a Dora chair (she currently has spiderman) and told her that she could have it, but has to give up click. she handed me click, tried to put the chair in the cart (her brother is sideways on the cart, so no room) i turned it upside down, its now touching her head. she sees click on the shelf and is like CLICK!! and reaching. I told her its either the chair or click, and she wants click, so back goes the chair. she then cooperates the rest of the trip, puts click in the cart, looks around, then pulls it back out, puts it in, pulls it out.

she gets crabby and wants some milk. (we had been to the mall and now walmart) I didn't get her any in between stores, so i know she's thirsty, so i grab one of those in the plastic bottles and hand it to her (keeping mind on the fact that she got a different kind open last night and took off the foil!!) I finish getting what groceries i was going to get then check out, she gets her milk back, puts on her coat and we go out to the truck, i grab her sippy and fill her milk and put her in the seat. happy kiddo, happy mommy, sleeping baby.

BUT, i have to stress this, we go out shopping or somewhere all the time, so she's content most of the time , unless nap time is missed, which unfortunately, is about half the time.. at Christmas time, i put coats down and shop till she's sleeping..