A Memorable Trip To Whole Foods

We had a lovely morning- it's beautiful outside with just a hint of fall in the air, which is so reassuring that roasting outdoors and swatting mosquitoes will soon be a thing of the past for the next few months (although you know by January I'll be pining away for roasting outside!). We played in the faithful old crabbie sandbox, one of the greatest birthday gifts we've ever given. It was for Howie's 1st birthday right after we moved to St Louis, and it has paid for itself many times over! It entertained us yet again this morning. We passed the morning doing this or that and finally about 10:45 left for Whole Foods to get some random groceries. I'm sure it is no surprise to anyone that Justice refuses to ride in the cart anymore. He wants to be on foot, which has given me a few heart attacks from time to time when he disappears momentarily, but generally works out ok. Today we got some lovely looking grapes and Honeycrisp apples and were ready to get some pears when disaster struck- Howie climbed on the side of the cart to hold on and it tipped over on him, spilling grapes everywhere and sending an apple rolling. At first I was afraid he was hurt since that was a big cart falling on his legs, but he was actually fine and apologized profusely. The huge crash obviously attracted lots of attention and I'm so grateful for a kind shopper who saw my predicament... cart smashing little boy, another toddler ready to run at a moment's notice, hugely pregnant, and grapes everywhere. She came to my rescue, pulled the cart off of Howie, and helped me pick up the grapes. Justy also came to my rescue by not only staying put but also picking up grapes! Wow! Turning over a new leaf! Usually that would have been the perfect opportunity to make a break for it! But anyway we picked ourselves up, dusted ourselves off, and kept moving. A man shopper gave me some marginally dirty looks which I did my best to ignore. It's so funny to look at our cart when I'm shopping with the boys- maybe I should be a tougher mom but I usually don't have the energy to refuse every last thing the boys ask for and/or put in the cart. A bagillion pounds of grapes? Sure. A carton of the summer's last raspberries? Why not? A jug of pink lemonade? Of course. Animal cookies? Thanks for asking, yes! Occasionally something ends up in the cart that is just too random or unjustifiable and then I stand my ground (a pound of artisan pasta that costs $6.99? I think not. I'm all about food, but that seems a bit much to me.), but if it's marginally explainable, not horribly unhealthy, and useful, what the heck? I'm a pushover... I'll say no in other contexts, but I love food, so why shouldn't they too? Sometimes I think about what little control children have over their own food choices- it's not like they can go buy something they want on their own. So if they can pick something sometimes that's a little bit special I'm happy for them. Anyway, we made it to the checkout without incident, paid the bill, and left. Happy ending.