Shopping Success

I took both kids into CVS last night free. No stroller, no second adult, no cart (not that a car cart is a good idea with two anyway). SOOO much better than my experience at Target 8 months ago. Now, granted, we were only getting one prescription, and it was CVS and not the most exciting place on the planet, but they did a great job holding my hands, not touching all the cosmetics, and waiting nicely next to me on line and at the counter to pay (Avery did do a jumping dance at the counter after the first full minute of standing there, but she stayed within a nice radius of me.).

The only downfall was when we left the house, I told them we were going shopping. CVS is not appropriate shopping to Quinn, apparently, and she was pretty much crushed when we were leaving. We actually went back inside to "shop" more in the aisles but she was not pleased. I guess only the grocery store, hardware store and IKEA are real places to shop?

I realize this sounds pathetic, but since we both work and do 95% of our shopping together on the weekend, when the kids are sleeping solo, or online, there just aren't a ton of opportunities to try freewheeling like this.  The only place I take them shopping semi-regularly by myself is BJs with it's double carts and general spectacularness (in their eyes...it's the only cart they'll consistently sit in without trying to climb out...). Maybe one day I'll take them out to eat alone...

Shopping with twin toddlers

It's an experience. Hauling a stroller into a store with carts (when we haven't walked there) just isn't out thing, so we do a lot of winging it. There's just not a lot of stores with functional doubles. I Love the doubles at BJs/Costco, but my grocery store has ones kind of like the weird triples at Target with the seat designed for a 6 year old and car carts only.

Party in Lowes several months ago. These inescapable cars still work for us.

Now, the weird seat ones are fine for toddlers...if buckles aren't an issue. My kids don't mind being buckled exactly, but they like to do it themselves. This is just fine in a BJs cart but not in a cart where they are likely to tumble out and fall 4 feet due to the design.

Perfectly nice true double. Not sure why they don't fight about sitting in these...maybe because they only see them every 6 or 8 weeks?

And, I am just not willing to plan my life so that my toddlers don't have to go to the grocery store.

Driving today before the escapes began

So today, we may or may not have been spotted by our pediatrician with two 1.75 year olds in various stages of climbing the car cart...we are working on either a) staying in the car or b) walking and holding hands 75% of the time when we shop now. We do most of our weekend shopping together or with the jogging stroller, so this is working ok (aka they walk a lot of the time). But they're just NOT ready to be free yet...I tried a few weeks ago and ended up carrying 2 20 month olds out of Target football style.  They WERE having a good time but I couldn't grab the ONE STINKING ITEM I wanted plus keep them BOTH within an arms length (one item aside, I couldn't do it). Maybe by next year this time they'll be mature enough that there is no running down aisles.

(Ironically, the basket on this car cart does have a double seat, but what kid wants to sit up there when there is a car option?)

shopping

There's some level of challenge to shopping with two toddlers. For a long time, I scoffed at people who complained about this. It was SO EASY to take two babies out. What where they complaining about?

This was, of course, during the time period when they happily snoozed in their car seats in the snap and go stroller and let us browse to our hearts' content.

Eventually, they woke up, and preferred to look around. Cool. Hold the awake baby (or at least push back the visor). Aim to shop around naptime so they'll sleep in the carseats (or aim to shop when they're awake so they'll sleep at home. whichever).

Then they wanted more.

Cool.
Let them hang out in the cart. (a double cart is a perk. Thanks BJs!).
Sharing a cart worked great too (until Avery learned to climb out anyway).

Now? It is getting harder. We still take them out to the store at least once or twice a weekend, but while they fit, they refuse to share the top basket anymore. THEY WANT THEIR OWN LEGHOLES thankyouverymuch and two of them, not one. So we hold one and let one ride, or get two carts. We're styling. (We generally shop all together, or one of us goes sans-kids.) And now they're getting impatient. They eat tags off ornaments at Home Depot and the cardboard vanilla box at Shop Rite (gross, kind of, I know, I know). They want to walk. They don't want to hold hands.

How long until we can't shop with them at all?

As a related sidebar, why don't more store HAVE double carts? Lots of people have kids close in age. It isn't just for multiples! We JUST found the multiples carts at our local grocery store this weekend (and we shop there a lot - they hid them in the garage, not the surface lot). There are double carts with cars on the front (4 total seats) except the basket is tiny. So your family of 4 kids can have groceries for a single person? Who planned that? And then there's some triple carts...I went through three before finding one with a functional harness (a necessity when it is holding your kid on the seat...maybe not so important for a 4 ft tall kid). Also, Avery HATED this; only Quinn agreed to the full body harness. Avery needs to ride high like a Queen I guess. :)

Rolling

Although the girls are still in their infant seats, e stored using the double snap and go stroller a while ago. They like to sit up and look around, and that thing is great with new little ones but so unweildy (is that a word? My phone does not think so ).

A lot of stores have double carts, but except  at BJs, they all seem to be of the toddler variety (eg a car attached to a cart, etc). Not a huge problem for us...

Of course, almost right after I took this photo Quinn cried and I picked her up, releasing Avery's leg, so she immediately stood up. In the front of the cart....so I was them stuck in the middle of home depot with two banks in my arms....

I ended up plopping Avery back in and sliding Quinn in behind her, since I needed to pin her down for a second to have a free hand to grab the buckle. Poor Quinn. She totally have me the look of "i was crying and now you are using me like a doorstop".

I was happily suprises to find bucklimg avery solved the climbing for now, and I can hold off on rethinking my cart strategy until the day Quinn tries to escape...