Quick trip gone bad

I ran out of time to go to Meijer after teaching all day.

So, at 6:45pm, since Andy was at a meeting, I decide to quickly run to Meijer.

With Kaden.

Typically, this goes pretty well.

I bring snacks.

Kaden eats the snacks.

The grocery shopping gets done.

Apparently, this was not the typical trip.

First, he refused to go in the cart.

Not so atypical.

Lately, he thinks it's cool to sit in the back of the cart.

Today, he didn't want that.

He wanted to walk.

Fabulous.

So, after embarrassing myself by the carts trying to get Kaden to sit in one,

I began my grocery shopping.

With Kaden as the cart pusher.

So far so good.

We get apples.

He literally takes them off the display and throws them into the cart.

Sweet.

I'm paying $2 lb. for bruised honeycrisp apples.

Next, the milk.

At this point he proceeds to make a mad dash from the cart down one of the aisles.

So, I tell him I'm leaving.

He continues to run.

He then falls.

And gets up and runs again.

I leave my cart, with my purse in it of course.

I chase him down the aisle and drag him by one arm back to my cart.

At this point, I'm half expecting child protective services to meet me at my cart.

So, we proceed to have another large scene.

I'm not sure why I didn't move to a more private area in the store to do this, but I didn't.

I force Kaden into the front of the cart and buckle him in.

It was quite the struggle.

He's screaming, asking for anyone he knows except for me.

Everyone's staring.

My grocery list is still staring at me.

So, I take a deep breath, and begin pushing the cart.

My child screamed through most of the rest of the shopping.

By the end, he had pretty much calmed down.

He watched quietly as I did the self-check.

We were walking out the door as he suddenly remembered the penny horse.

We walked out the exit, and right back into the entrance.

I didn't want to deal with another scene.

So, I was a great mom, and took my naughty, extremely overtired child back into the store.

He put his penny in the horse, gleaming with delight.

His grin shone from ear to ear as he said,"Thank you, Mommy."

My heart was warm again.

"Bye bye horse, thank you," Kaden says as we finish the ride.

Kaden pushes the cart back to the car.

We drive home.

Only 20 minutes of crying in his crib and he surrendered himself to a night of sleep.

Thank you, God, for the blessing.....of bedtime.