The Grocery Store Game

As I've mentioned on here before, our apartment complex is conveniently located right next to a large shopping center. I quickly figured out that it is nearly as far to walk to my car as it is to walk the other direction to the grocery store, so driving to get groceries would be pointless since it would still involve hauling the food from the car to our home. Right after we moved in I bought us a folding metal grocery cart, and it has worked out really well for shopping trips. Our faithful cart can hold two gallons of milk and several bags of groceries, perfect for one of our little biweekly trips to the store. I do end up going to the store more frequently because our cart doesn't hold as many groceries as my trunk, but I've learned to spend less on each trip and we've been able to increase our consumption of fresh fruits and veggies by buying them more often.

Unfortunately, our little shopping system has started to hit a snag. Little Dude is getting too big for me to wear him in the snuggli. Not only is he long (his head hits my chin) and heavy, but he's also gotten grabby and wiggly and doesn' t really like to be in there any more. Master Fob can still wear him comfortably in the sling, but no matter how many times I try to use it, I can't get the darn thing to work right on me. Sometimes I take Little Dude with us in the stroller, but the basket isn't big enough for milk and I can't fit more than one or two bags on the handles. And I can't push the stroller and pull the cart at the same time. I will often take a trip out in the evening after Master Fob is home, but sometimes I want to go during the day. Like today, when we're supposed to be getting a massive storm with wind and rain this evening.

So now I'm trying to figure out my options for transporting myself, my children, and my food to and from the store with ease. I think today I'll give the sling another go. I had considered just carrying him to the store and bringing the cart home with us, but that feels trashy and it's illegal (and our apartment managers have asked us not to do that) I've often seen people advertising hiking backpacks on craigslist for cheap, so I might try getting one of those. Our neighbors wear their baby in one all the time and he looks pretty happy perched up there. I worry about the akwardness of carrying him that way and the weirdness of looking like a pack mule. We now have a double bike trailer/jogging stroller (thank you, thank you to Master Fob's generous sister) that might work for both kids and groceries. But then I'd have to lock it to the bike rack at the store, take the kids out and then load them up again after shopping. It seems like a bit of a pain to me.

Sigh. I think I've been thinking about this a little too much!