The Shop-O-Rama

One of Carder's favorite books lately is "Llama Llama Mad at Mama" by Anna Dewdney.  In this rivetting tale, Llama Llama goes shopping with his Mama and throws a major tantrum because he is tired of shopping.  But after some intervention by Mama, Llama's attitude turns around and he happily helps Mama finish the shopping.

Lately, every time we need to go to the store, I have called it the Shop-O-Rama and have asked him if he can help me like Llama helps Mama.  This has really helped cut down on our mid-store meltdowns.  (Thank God because there is probably not anything I dread more than the meltdown in the middle of the grocery store where onlookers just shake their heads at you because of your poor parenting skills...)

This week, I forgot to get 2 items when we went to the store on Saturday.  Derek had to go in to the office, so after solo parenting my way through Church, I decided to run to the store to pick up the things we forgot.  We normally shop at a big box chain store because their produce is much better and their prices are less painful on our budget.

But since we only needed 2 things, I decided to pay the higher price for the convenience of the smaller parking lot and store.  Carder loves this store because they have huge buffalo heads mounted in the front and the back of the store.  They also have some kid sized shopping carts.

This trip, since he is getting to be such a good little helper and has been doing pretty good about staying close when walking in a store, I let him push the cart.  He felt like such a big boy pushing his cart and groceries around the store. He excitedly pointed out apples and bananas.  When I told him what was next, he would repeat the item as we walked toward that section of the store.  Adorable...

When we were done, I asked him if he would like for Mommy to pay for his groceries and he said, "Yes."  Smart boy.  Get Mommy to pay for your food...

He enjoyed pushing his shopping cart so much that he didn't want to leave the store.  Once I convinced him to check out, he pushed his cart over to the little carts and put it back where it belonged so that it would be there for him the next time we came to the store.

My Little Shopper - Looking up at the Buffalo Head