Easy as 1, 2, 3

This blog originally appeared January 22, 2009 at http://www.parentclick.com/BlogPost.html?id=898

Smack in the middle of my third week as the father of three, I got a taste of one of the harsh truths of having a trio of carpet goblins under 4 years.

When Riley was born, it hardly cramped our style. Within two weeks we were eating out again as usual (ah, the good old days); matter of fact, Crystal and I celebrated our first Valentine's Day as Mommy and Daddy with our son at a steakhouse, an apt date night for a couple of eager, excited parents. We didn't even completely eliminated our habit of heading out to Wal-Mart of Meijer at 9:00 at night to grab a few essential items (read: impulse buying).

When Jenna arrived 2 years later, leaving the house got a bit tougher. When we hit the stores, Jenna would sit in the cart's kiddie seat, and Riley would alternate between manning the big section of the cart and running free, darting through the aisles and hiding in racks of clothing, around corners and generally driving the both of us nuts. Before long we were simply tossing Ry into the cart right at the beginning and suffering his whining instead of potentially getting lost or kidnapped.

But now Mason is here, all 9 lbs. or so of him, and though he's small in body, in sprit he's much larger. Last night, our first family trip to the big box retailer of our choice (this evening, the SuperTarget at 116th and I-69), we had that rude awakening. How are we going to tote our children around and still buy things?

We ended up this time stuffing both of the older kids into the cart, and young Mason and his convenient carrying case rode in the seat. It was going pretty well for awhile, until the kids decided to stand up, push and misbehave. There was no screaming, and no real fighting, but it was clear it wasn't going to last.

My ultimate solution was to take the younger and less rambunctious Jenna out of the cart and let her walk. Ended up a good choice, as Riley protested, but still sat in the cart while Jenna followed Mommy to the line.

But it reminded us again that we've officially attained Old Married Couple status, and we're just going to have to be those people who are settled in for the night by 7 p.m.

Nothing wrong with that, right?