Shopping with the terrible threes..

Before we left for shopping.

You have to be adventurous to take a toddler shopping, but sometimes you may just want to and other times you may have no choice. Friday, I wanted to take her. So beforehand she gets a small pep talk and it goes something like this:

Me: "Mommy and daddy have to go shopping today. You can
only get one thing. Do not ask for two."
Kars: "Whine whine whine"
Me: "You better be on your best behavior, KarleyShay, Momma and
Daddy are taking the switch."
Kars: "Whine whine whine whine."

The list of rules are your usual: When Mommy (or Daddy) say no, that means, do not poke the packages of meat in the butcher section, do not test the laws of physics and try to take out the bottom can in the pyramid shaped display, do not play baseball with oranges in the produce section, and most importantly do not ask
random people one thousand questions..

KarleyShay, has the tendency to ask people she doesn't even know from Adam, why they are buying what's in their buggy, what their favorite color is, if they have a favorite princess, etc.. I'm sure you catch my drift.  She never meets a stranger.

Our first stop is Marshall's, of course we pass the shoes first. She just absolutely has to have a pair. (She's definitely her fathers daughter) She's not pitching a fit, just talking very loudly. She gets a lot of smiles and older ladies comment on how she has the sweetest voice. Others call her an angel. Hmmm.. Then it starts. After the shoe section, they have their intimate section, (I guess you would call it). KarleyShay, sees a blue and white polka dot bra out of the corner of her eye. Her words (if you would even consider them words) kinda reminds me of something a monkey would say. Then she starts hollering out "I have to have it". I whispered to her, "KarleyShay, it is not time for you to wear a bra yet. You're too little, baby. Maybe in a few years." "I need it," she continued, "I wear a size six! But I wear a size six!" KarleyShay, knows the size she wears, usually every Saturday she goes on shopping occurrence with her Mima and her Sissy (her Aunt Savannah). I reply to her "Kars, I know you wear a size six, but that's not your size and you are just too little".

I walked away to the opposite side of the buggy while, Cody, talked to her. His words are magic. Somehow, she miraciously stops. We go on about our shopping and I overhear, Cody, trying to talk Kars out of something. He had spotted for her a Dora purse, it reminds me of those old school, metal, lunchboxes, and it came with three tubes of lip gloss! KarleyShay, is an all-american girl. She loves lip gloss, dolls, and anything with a gorgeous sparkle and/or shine.. As her father hands her the Dora package, I see the bra come out of the buggy! Now, I know why she got silent all of a sudden. I hadn't even noticed. Kinda reminded me of the time, when I bought her six ringpops at the grocery store and did not realize it 'till we got home. Which is a story for a different day. We rap up our time at the department store and proceed to the check out. I hand the lady our stuff and wait for Kars, to hand the lady hers. She won't give it up, she was afraid her Dora lip gloss would get taken away just like her bra did. Poor thing, huh? Finally, the cashier had it scanned. We paid our dues and was finally out the door. KarleyShay, was content. Not a single peep came from her. Life was good for those few, short minutes!

Our next stop, a recently opened shoe store. My best friend is getting married in less than two months and we have yet to pick out the bridesmaids/flower girl shoes. Upon getting out of the car, KarleyShay says sassy, "I'm taking my gloss and purse." Not wanting an argument, we agreed that she could. A very small, tin purse with a few tubes of lip gloss, No big deal, right?

As we are looking at the stilettos, KarleyShay, tries to sit on the bench and open her purse, well, attempts to anyways. She ends up falling off the side with one of her legs still on the bench, and hitting her head. She immediately yells, "hey! I'm okay! I'm okay!" I'm amazed the kid made it to her third birthday without suffering a brain damaging head injury. Cody, laughs. While, I of course, fall to my knees, kiss her boo boo (forehead) and help her up, she goes into a frenzy! All of her lip-gloss had fallen out! Luckily, we found them. That done it for me, enough with the shopping. I was ready to head to Wal-Mart, find something to cook for dinner, and go home! Oh joy, Wal-Mart.

We hadn't even gotten out of the parking lot and KarleyShay had started. She didn't want to put her flip flops on the right feet, hold Daddy's hand, or even walk. I told, Cody, that I needed my switch  out of the car, usually just saying the word 'switch', gets a reaction out of, KarleyShay, but when he told me that I had left it at home, it was fair ball to her.

First, we wanted to look at the Halloween costumes to try and change, Kars, mind about wanting to be Spiderman this year. Yeah, I know, what you are thinking, I had just previously stated that I wanted a quick trip in and out so we could head home. But  in all honesty, does any Wal-Mart trip end up like that? Yeah, I did not think so..

No, Halloween costumes were out yet, or I just couldn't find them one. i'm not really sure. But we had to pass the Barbie section. We happened to turn up the aisle to see if they carried Barbie Dream House, Malibu Edition, which they didn't. KarleyShay, spots a hair straightner, hair dryer, cell phone and something else in a package that was Princess. Of course, a tantrum starts to develop after we had said no. Let me throw something in real quick, I was just BRAGGING the other day how my three year old had never thrown a tantrum in the store. Well, that came back to hit me in the face. We immediately left the toy section, head towards the freezer aisle to get something quick and easy and head for the check-outs where my child start in on a chorus of, “I neeed candy?” She didn't even ask nicely. Not that she cared. But instead of, 'Can I have candy' it was 'I neeeed Candy'.. What evil minded person decided it would be a good idea to put a display of candy in the check-out lanes, right at a child’s eye level? Obviously someone who has never been shopping
with a toddler. More crying has developed at this point. She cries all the way out the store, thru the parking lot, getting buckled in her car seat, and alllll the way down the interstate. The crying finally stopped. I turned around to see if she had fallen asleep. No, somehow she had wiggled lose out of her buckles, and turned around to look out of the back windshield. I had to climb halfway through the back, turn her back around to find that she was eating chap stick, spank her legs and buckle her back up.

What has happened to my sweet, precious, daughter? When will these terrible three's go away?

We are finally home and all settled in. Kars', is in her room watching Max & Ruby, we are in the kitchen, I'm cooking while my love does the dishes. Need, I mention that I didn't even ask him to do them? Ahhh, he's amazing! Then he says, "What are we gonna do when we have another one? Are you ready for that?"

Huh?! Two, KarleyShay's? Surely having two babies would be easier, right? No, I didn't think so.
With days like this, I think this conversation could hold off for a few more months. But... then there are those other days, when you wake up and continue to thank God for giving you the biggest blessing that you have ever received, while getting smothered in the biggest kisses, and listening to her say, "Momma, I love you bestest!" So just maybe, we are ready and I just really need to add to our pep talk before shopping!

She picked me flowers out of the flower bed! :)