It was just meant to be a simple trip to the shop.
Silly me, there’s no such thing as a simple trip to the
shop.
I usually avoid taking all three girls out as much as
humanly possible, so on a day when it was just myself and Baldy Baby (no longer
bald, or a baby!) I decided to head to a rather fancy shopping centre in search
of nothing more complicated than some exercise videos (long story), and some
strawberries and bananas.
Having failed miserably on the exercise video front
(although I did pick up a copy of ‘Belly Dancing Blitz: Shake off those pounds’!)
I went in search of some fruit. As I pushed the pram into the lift, a Dad
already inside with his little girl a tad younger than Baldy shot me a look. He
tousled his daughter’s hair. ‘Rosie refuses to go in the pram anymore, don’t
you darling. You’re a big girl now.’
Rosie was too busy picking her nose to notice her Dad’s
smarmy comment, and I just smiled and nodded.
He wouldn’t feel so superior if I
let Baldy out of her pram and she somehow set off the shopping centre’s fire
alarm and all the fire sprinklers flattened his carefully blow dried hair. (She
would, I don’t know how she’d do it, but she would… so I keep her in the pram
for everyone’s safety and sanity.)
In Coles I quickly found some strawberries and bananas, and
placed them on the hood of the pram, before becoming distracted by some ham and
cheese buns. Suddenly Baldy reached up and flipped the hood, pulling it down
over her face. ‘Raining!’ she declared (was she having visions of the fire
alarm going off?).
The punnet of strawberries flew across the air before
smashing on the ground, popping open and spewing strawberries across the floor.
The bananas followed in a graceful arc.
I swore quite loudly.
As the heads swivelled in my direction, I mumbled to myself
as I squatted down and began picking up the fruit salad. Baldy watched with
interest as she kept flipping the hood up and down.
I nabbed a packet of the buns and sped off towards the
checkouts. Seeing an empty space I pushed between a lady and her trolley and
began poking at the screen in front of me. She was staring with her mouth open.
‘That’s not a self-service register,’ she hissed. ‘There’s a
line,’ she said indicating the three people behind her, also staring in shock.
I had been poking at an advertising screen, which was now telling me that I
really needed new insurance in case I suddenly died. I could only hope.
I wrestled the pram past the woman and her trolley full of
cat food, and went in search of the actual self-service registers. After realising
that Coles registers weren’t likely to accept my Woolworths rewards card, I
finally managed to escape. I just needed to get back to the car.
‘Bun please,’ Baldy asked, poking her head around the side
of the pram.
I stopped the pram in the middle of the mall, and pulled out
of a still-warm ham and cheese bun and handed it to Baldy. I had only taken a
few more steps when she declared ‘yuck’ and threw the bun out of the pram, which
landed exactly in front of the back wheel, which then gracefully rolled
straight over it.
Struggling to not swear, I grabbed the flattened bun and
deposited it in the nearest bin before practically running to the car.
And the funniest thing of all – this was actually a GOOD
trip to the shop.
Ah the joys of shopping with small children in tow. Now that both of mine are at school, I try to cram every possible bit of shopping and outings into my child-free time. Definite sanity saver. BTW my big girl (who is nearly 9) was a runner, so she was in a pram for a jolly long time. Much safer for everyone. How rude of that man in the lift. There are so many people out there who make those kind of comments, that are part bragging and part demeaning. I've no time for people like that at all. Who cares what they think.
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