You see, I allowed her to use a mini cart once when I was by myself with the kids. Once. The grocery store was relatively busy, and for a not-yet-three year old, the shelves and items on it are like a wonderland. Of course she thinks she's just like Mama and can pick out whatever she feels she'd like in her cart. On that occasion, among other items, she managed to go to one of the self serve bakery bins and swipe a croissant! That was then end of it for her! I threw her into our big cart as she screamed, cried, and solicited disapproving looks from fellow shoppers!
Again, I figured that since Levi was secured in the big cart and Eric was more of a tag along (as I had our somewhat short shopping list and know what I'm looking for), Lena could learn how to act with her little cart. Well, at some point toward the beginning of our shopping trip, either I didn't hear Eric tell me to watch her, or he just got preoccupied Last I saw, she was with Eric and I ran of to get the shopping done. A few minutes later, I saw her in the Natural Foods section. I was thinking, "Oh, Eric must actually be looking at something in this section, kinda odd... where is he?" I looked around a bit, told Alena to put back a couple of things she was taking off of the shelf, and saw Eric round the bend from a different direction! Apparently, she wandered all the way down an aisle by herself, and I just happened to catch her later (however Eric and I didn't say anything to each other about it at the time)!
Assuming Eric would resume his supervisory duty, we continued on! She'd try to put random items in her cart, including an industrial sized can of stewed tomatoes!! Eric made sure she put those things back, and tried to steer her away from other shoppers. Thankfully it wasn't too busy. She said hi to every person she passed. Most were surprised, and had a delayed reaction of saying hi back after she passed. I had noticed she had a few things in her cart, and figured that Eric had put them there. We made it out with everything we needed, and made it home in one piece. Whew!
After the kids were in bed, Eric and I were talking about how funny Alena was as she stomped around authoritatively pushing her little cart, looking like she was on a mission! We laughed as we remembered when she tried to muscle the huge can of tomatoes into her cart! Remembering the few items she did have in her cart, I asked Eric what the gravy was for. He said he thought I had put it into her cart! Neither of us had! I told him there was some tuna in the cart, too, and he agreed that Alena must have sneaked a can into there, too! We checked our pantry (Eric had just put everything away without question as to the items), and found both had made their way home! We were very thankful that we didn't end up with some expensive, exotic item (or an giant can of tomatoes) that I'd have to return! We'll use the tuna and gravy, albeit, not together!
As we laughed and talked, we realized that there was a period of time when she was all by herself, roaming the store! I can only imagine what people must have thought as this cute, pint size shopper passed by them, pausing to hastily pick out some tuna and gravy! I laughed so hard, I was nearly peeing my pants! That's our girl! She's our crazy, independent, strong willed, smart little bag! Oh Alena!
