Finally That Trip To Costco... Never Again By Myself!

Wednesday come hell or high water I had to go to Costco, we weren't going to make it through another night without more diapers.  So repeat the drill from the day before, but this time I made it past Starbucks.  I got to Costco and knew that I immediately had to get Calista changed, so we went straight for the bathroom.  She did it to me again with a poopy diaper, but I got her all cleaned up and left a little gift in the trash for the cleaning lady in Costco.

Luckily the shopping carts at Costco have seats for two babies in them.  So I brought a blanket from home and put that at the base and placed both cubs in the cart.  They aren't sitting up on their own yet, but Calista can hold herself up straight.  Alex on the other hand slouches a bit.  The problem was though that both of their heads were hitting the wires at the back of the shopping cart seat, so I had to pad it with the blanket and a burp cloth.

With that all set we were off on our shopping adventure through Costco.... at lightning speed I might add.  I knew my time was limited before both of them became fussy.  I made it through 3/4 of the store before I had to pick Calista up out of her cart seat and carry her.  At this point I have 2 boxes of diapers, 3 gallons of bleach and lots of other heavy items in my cart, Calista in my right arm over my shoulder, Alex in the cart seat and I have to turn this heavy cart with one arm.  I knew it wasn't just me that found this taxing when I saw the looks of pity on other shoppers faces.  One woman even said she wouldn't have had the nerve to go it alone with one baby, let alone two!  So thinking myself to be a super mom after that comment I decided we were done and it was time to get going.

At the check stand I ran into yet another problem though, I had to put the items on the conveyor belt.  How was I going to do that while holding Calista.  So I told Calista she was just going to have to sit in the cart seat for a little while so I could unload.  I set her in the seat and started to buckle her in when I caught the tender under part of her arm in the buckle and pinched it.  Oh that little girl screamed!!!!  (As would I, that's a tender area!).  The entire Costco warehouse seemed to be staring at me and I went from super mom to 'what an idiot' in about a split second.

I picked Cailsta back up, she was crying, I was crying, the checker looked over at me and I explained to her what I had accidentally done.  Next thing I knew there were two Costco employees unloading my cart for me and entertaining Alex as he went through the check out line.

With my purchases all loaded back up in the cart, Calista in my arms, Alex in the cart seat still, all that was left to do was load it all up in the car.  As I exited Costco though the woman that was behind me stopped and looked at me, then stopped again and asked if I needed any help.  I told her thank you, but I can manage and started making a turn with the cart to go to the car.  She stopped again and said, "Really, please let me at least push your cart for you".  So I said okay and thanked her.  Now in the back of my mind I'm having an argument.... is she a kind person or is she going to take off running with my Alex in the cart?  Too many stories in the news, so you never know.  With caution I told her I would pull on the front part of the cart to help her steer it since it was so heavy and Alex needed to be held upright.

Once at the car she offered to hold Calista and asked how in the world I was going to get the groceries into my car.  I told her that was the easy part, I put Calista in her car seat, then Alex in his leaving both doors open since it was hot out.  Then loaded up the groceries and was done.  I thanked her profusely... and turns out, she was a kind person not a kidnapper.

The worst part of motherhood for this blog is doing something really stupid like catching your child's skin in a buckle.

The best part of motherhood for this blog is the kindness of strangers.

A Trip to Costco

Thursday Mom and I were supposed to take a trip to Costco to sign up for a membership with the cubs.  I had let my Sam's Club membership expire because I just have such strong feelings about Walmart and the way they treat their employee's as well as their lack of philanthropy.  (If you'd like to get an eye opener watch the movie, "WalMart, The High Cost Of Low Prices").

Anyway, in Northern Colorado we awoke Thursday to a pretty heavy blanket of snow.  I decided that I wasn't going to take the cubs out in that so it ended up being a day at home.  The cubs and I had some play time on the floor with their play mats, but other than that it was a really quiet day.

Since we couldn't go to Costco on Thursday I called to see if Mom wanted to go on Friday instead.  I had to get diapers so it was no longer an option for me of what day I'd rather go.  Mom was able to go so I drove out to pick her up and away we went.  We don't have a Costco close by so it was about an hour drive, of course the cubs slept.

Once there we signed up for our membership with a cub in each cart and everyone walked by ewwwing and ahhhhing at them.  One lady however said they looked exactly alike.... I'm not sure about that?  You can tell they are related but they are not identical.

We started with each cub in their car seat/pod inside the shopping cart.  Then Calista started to get fussy so I put her in the big girl seat in the cart.  I strapped her in and had to hold her a little, but she seemed to enjoy the bird's eye view... so many colors and things to see!  Next Alex started to fuss so we tried him in the big boy seat and he took that for a little while, but in the end he decided that nothing is better than Mommy and Grandma's arms to carry you around the store.  Needless to say, both Mom and I had sore arms and shoulders after this shopping experience.

Once we finished our Costco trip we got them changed and ready for the ride home.  As soon as we got back to our house it was a race to get in the door and get some bottles made up.  So Mom heated up the water while I started grabbing babies.  We got them fed, changed, food put away and out the door we went again.  This time to the Post Office, it really is easier to have someone just sit in the car with them while I run in, so if I can find someone to do that I take advantage of it.  Meanwhile Calista was in the first stages of a meltdown.  Little did we know it was going to be a MAJOR meltdown!

That little girl cried and screamed and cried and screamed all the way to Berthoud.  We never did figure out what was wrong with her.  Once we got onto the main street in Berthoud she was so worked up that I had to pull over and take her out of her car seat and walk with her on the sidewalk.  She was crying so hard she started choking.  We got to Mom and Dad's house, got her out and she seemed to calm down... she just didn't want to be in that car I guess.

We had a nice time at Mom and Dad's, Ed met us there and we had pizza.  Then, as Ed says, it was time to deploy the fleet.  Which in Ed language means time to pack up the kids and head home.

The worst part of motherhood for this blog was that screaming express drive.  Hearing my little girl crying so hard that she's choking and I can't get that car pulled over fast enough.

The best part of motherhood for this blog was watching the kids eyes take in all the sights from the store.  It just seemed like their little brains were overloaded trying to take it all in.