Cars at the Grocery Store

Two moments at the grocery store had me shaking my head at myself this afternoon. Both involved cars. Both illustrate that juggling these kids are making have made me lose my mind. Completely.

First - knowing that I was headed in for a very short list, I did what I do only bi-annually. I told Paige that she could ride in one of the car carts. The HUGE-can't-maneuver-around-any-corner carts. All smiles, she climbed in and begin "steering." I buckled Tyler up top in the regular spot. Of course he wanted nothing to do with facing me. He wanted driver's seat with Paige. Reminding myself of the fact that I had a mere three things on my list, I switched him to the front. He was a happy camper. With it being a novel first-time experience, he did great. No limbs flailing out the side. No fingers dragged along the ground. No yelling for items strategically shelved at toddlers' eye-level. No punching sibling to get the horn that works.

It was an enjoyable ten minutes for all...

Until I realized the slip of mind. The bad move on my part. The lapse of judgement. The fact that I opened his understanding that said car carts do more than just park near the plain metal carts. I shook my head realizing the begging (baby grunts at his stage) that will likely happen on all future grocery trips from a previously oblivious kid. Great. Why would I move that cart out of parked position?!? Rarely are my trips a quick ten minutes in and out...so I'm sure the car cart will "be broken" next trip...

Anyways, letting both Tyler and Paige relish in the final moments of the car cart excitement (and keeping them in one place for as long as it was working), I pushed them all the out into the parking lot. For anyone in Utah's weather today, you know how windy it is outside. Windy and loud. I get to my car and begin scooping Paige out so that she can climb into her chair. I stop for a minute, thinking "that wind is so loud it sounds like the car is on." I glance up to see a neighboring car driving away from us. "Oh, it's not the wind. It's that car," I think. Relieved that it isn't me.

How could it be me? We just got to the car. I'm am only on step one of the re-loading process. I bend down and take Tyler out of his pint-sized driving position. I lean into the middle of our car where his car seat is... I peer to the front... and see nothing less than my keys dangling in the ignition. OF. MY. CAR. No, they shouldn't be there. No, I haven't gotten to step two of loading bags into the back...let alone step three of ditching the cart...or step four of climbing in myself and letting out a HUGE sigh of relief that that shopping horror is done...OR step five of inserting the key!!

Obviously the keys were in there the entire time. What's worse, the car was still turned on!! It was my engine I heard rumbling above the wind (maybe it's good the weather's noise hid my lameness from others walking past). On for the entire time we were cruising through the aisles.

I shouldn't be admitting this. You might now find yourself on the look-out for my Pathfinder sitting in random parking lots, ready for the free taking. Thank goodness the keys weren't locked inside, I guess. Thank goodness we were at Bountiful's Dick's market (during the day when the store is generally filled with slow moving senior citizens and other empathizing moms cranking car carts around the corners...), I guess.

I told Matt the (shortened/happy ending before the middle details) version of my "adventure" a few minutes ago over the phone. After a pause (a you're not kidding, are you, pause), he said "I would have been so mad" (if someone had taken the car). Phew, glad that was adverted. ;)

Seriously. My mind has been a mess since having Meg. My Kindergarten students use to fill in the words they knew I had meant to say when what really came out made no logical sense. My mind/memory didn't get any better after Paige. Add kid number three to the mix and I have admittedly lost all hope of thinking straight. Or of remembering any details/names/numbers. Or of acting normal.

Forget hopes of a waste line returning, I just want my commonsense back! Too much to ask?