Shopping

Although Friday is my normal shopping day, the fact that this Friday starts a new month occurred to me as I was getting ready for bed last night.  I hate shopping on the first Friday of the month because all the monthly shoppers head for Wal-Mart on the first Friday of the month and by 9:30, the shelves are emptied of virtually everything other than sardines and pickled eggs.  (Rodney and Micah would survive the week, the rest of us would starve). 

I decided to head out on this morning but then changed my mind figuring I would get something accomplished while Micah was in school and I'd go shopping with him when he got off the bus.  BIG MISTAKE!!!!!  He's been having daily meltdowns when he gets off the bus.  I know he's exhausted when this happens and it's a stage every kid goes through at this in-between point in their little lives so I figured if I stick him in the car, he can't argue with me about playing in the sandbox, riding his bike, or anything else.  I was right--well, partially.

We brought the remainder of his container of BreathSavers that I had been rationing since last Friday.  (I figured if I didn't keep an eye on how fast they were being consumed, I wasn't going to have to worry about an air-freshener in the bathroom.)  Since the lids on these little disks need all but a pry-bar to open, I spent the whole drive there with my arm in the backseat opening this fool thing for him. 

He wanted to walk.  Then he wanted to push the cart--without help.  Then he wanted to ride on top of all the groceries (eggs and bread included) but I had to put my foot down somewhere.  Then he lay on the floor in the middle of Wal-Mart and screamed at me about how tired his legs were.  At this point, we were about 20 feet away from the checkout aisle.

I'm not sure what I got done this morning.  In fact I'm pretty sure I got one load of laundry folded and that's about it.  I'm thinking it wasn't worth postponing a shopping trip to tag a four-year old along.  Lesson learned (for a few weeks at least).