Rules for Three under Three

Rule 1 of having three kids three and under: Do NOT take all three to Wal Mart...EVER.

I am usually very mindful of this rule and almost never break it. But this morning I needed eggs and milk--some basics that we couldn't do without today. Soooo, after Andrew's sports class and taking James and Andrew to their dr's appointments, I thought I would "stop by" Wal Mart on the way home.

Things started off pretty well. I (actually Andrew should get the credit) found a dry cart with the two-seater attached (yes, it is actually raining here today!). The two-seater attachment makes the cart big and bulky and a little crazy to maneuver through the aisles, but there are two seats with seat belts, yes, seat belts and I can still rest the car seat over the usual kid-sitting place and so I am left with the entire cart space for things like Ben and Jerry's ice cream, eggs and milk. What a luxury.

James was great the entire trip. Poor kid got 3 shots at the dr's office, so he just sat in his car seat and enjoyed the ride. Natalie and Andrew actually sat in their seats for the first part of the trip, and then Andrew wanted to get out and "help." He helped by "pushing" the big, unruly cart (mostly around in circles), by adding extra cans of things when I wasn't looking, and by telling me that we "meeded" (he uses "m" for "n") Cars sippy cups or $5 mini watermelons. But that was all in good fun, so the trip was still going smoothly. Natalie wanted to get out and "help" also, but miraculously the seat belt held her in.

In fact, I started to think that Rule 1 might need to be deleted from the Three under Three handbook (Oh, if you ever find that handbook, PLEASE let me know). But then we got to the checkout line.

Andrew was still in his helpful mode and he started helping me unload the cart. It all was going great until we got to the eggs. I had a container of 18 large eggs--you know, the wobbly, cardboard containers that you don't want your 3 year old boy tossing onto the checkout counter. So I told him he could put the yogurt on the counter, but that mom was going to get the eggs. He really wanted to get the eggs and threw a little fit. I again told him to find something else and not to mess with the eggs. I had already put them on the conveyer belt and he reached his little fingers up, grabbed them and slammed them down.

Nothing broke. But, we are really working on obedience with that kid. He tries to make his own rules (imagine that) for everything and I have not always been as consistent as I should. In trying to be consistent, I explained that I had asked him not to do that and he had done it anyway so he would have to get in the cart for a minute. So, I put him in the cart. That is when he started screaming and kicking and trying to climb out of the cart. By this time, Natalie had managed to weasel out of her seat belt.

Andrew continued to throw a screaming tantrum as I finished checking out. I could hardly hear the woman at the register. I just nodded my head and smiled at anything she said. The cart was full of white plastic bags and Andrew had his leg slung over the cart and scared himself a few times as he almost fell out.

Natalie was being so quiet this whole time. I looked over at her and there she was, eating a Cadbury Cream Egg. The wrapper was on the floor. I just started laughing. I picked up the wrapper and speaking loudly so the checkout lady could hear me over Andrew's screams, I said, "Looks like the quiet one has been stealing candy." She was nice enough to laugh. I'm still laughing about it.

I guess Rule 1 is still a good one to live by. Unfortunately, I realized I forgot the top-priority light bulbs as I was leaving the parking lot. I think I'll wait until I can go with just 2.