Grocery Shopping

I've been considering it for over a week now, but haven't been brave enough to actually try. But I figure the first step in conquering your fears is to face them, right? (Actually, I think the first step is acknowledging them...then facing them.) Either way, facing comes before conquering so that's just what I did. I woke up this morning and decided to go to the grocery store.

Like everything else, I put a lot of thought into it. I'd go to Brookshire's because it's less than five minutes from home, you can almost always park VERY close to the store if you don't go in the evening or on weekends, and someone brings your cart out and puts your groceries in the car. Wednesday was as good a weekday as any to avoid a grocery store crowd. So we got dressed, I packed his little diaper bag and I decided we'd just go get the stuff to make fajitas for dinner.

Then I googled putting the carseat/carrier on the shopping cart. Everyone I see with a baby in a store has their carrier up on the child seat section of the cart, but I didn't want to get there only to find mine didn't fit safely or something so I thought it best to prepare ahead of time. I'm very glad I did, because EVERYTHING said you shouldn't do it...period. Even if your carseat said it was safe to do so. And apparently, the majority make no such claims and don't actually fit even remotely snug.

Undettered, I considered my options. I could take him in his carrier and just set the whole thing in the bottom of the buggy, I could wait until Josh got home, get another type of carrier and go tomorrow, or I could try my sling.

Now, I'd purchased this sling thing (mine's a Munchkin Jelly Bean Reversible Sling) because there were so many positive reviews and moms everywhere just raved about their slings. However, the one I bought was too small (even the first time I tried it when Frazier was really "small") so I returned it and got a larger one. I'd tried it again just a few days ago and had all but decided to give up. It was just too difficult to get him in and out of it and keep it folded right, etc. But as I researched how best (and safely) to carry your baby in the grocery store today, I found so many praises for the sling I had to believe they couldn't all be wrong.

So I broke mine back out, determined to practice until we got it right. And we did! Much to my surprise it didn't take long before I was much encouraged and decided this was, indeed, an ingenious option for baby toting. See picture below:

(*note: there are several different ways to use it...Frazier fits this way best right now, but you can use them for babies and toddlers up to 35 lbs)

I got it all ready before we left and just wore it in the car on the way. Then when we got there, I parked right up front, took him out of his carseat, slipped him in and went to get a buggy. I was able to get in and out with not only him, but also my purse, his diaper bag, and two reusable shopping bags. And my hands were free for shopping. He just relaxed and hung out (literally) the whole 25 minutes we were there. He kept looking up at me like he was checking to make sure I was still back there even though I talked to him the whole time.

It was great. There were, maybe three other people there the whole time and one of the girls who worked there stopped and watched as we passed and said "Oh my gosh, how cute is that?" And we got everything we needed to make fajitas and guacamole. Which I'm going to make now.

So that's the story of mine and Frazier's first grocery trip. I felt empowered and not a bit anxious. And Frazier was perfect. I won't do it often, probably, but having done it once makes me happy. :)