The end of an Era I never knew I'd miss

Growing up I always hated the grocery store. I would beg my mom not to take me. I'd get headaches because of the lights, the noises made me feel crazy, and the smells could make anyone vomit. The people would weird me out and it always felt like it took FOREVER to get through it all. Often, we'd leave with two buggy fulls! Yes, I call them buggies.

Years went by; not much changed, there was still a lot left to be desired when it came to brown paper bags and the smell of cleaning solution mixed with raw meat and fruit laden with pesticides. But, I survived.. it became routine and well, we all need food at some point right?

Then.. something happened. I had a kid. Nope.. I didn't all of a sudden LLLUUUURRRRVVVEEE grocery shopping in fact, it became a bit more stressful figuring out how to navigate with an infant in a freezing cold, LOUD store with a buggy that felt like it shrunk 10 sizes once I popped the infant seat in the back (because we all know I was too much of a nut case to ever risk putting it in the front) but as before, I survived.

Then... something even better happened. My kid, he learned how to sit up!! The day he could sit unassisted I plopped him in that buggy, with the big, flashy, lovely, shopping cart germ protector thing and I built this insanely genuine relationship with my child. All over night. Ok, not really... but it really was beautiful. I began to LOVE going grocery shopping. I started to find reasons to hit up Shaws, Market Basket, Stop and Shop... wherever I could go that had a buggy with wheels that he could sit right in front of me, eye level.

I'd push him around in the buggy and completely forget why I was at the store. Did I need cat litter? Strawberries? Meh.. who cares, I had my little man right in front of me and I was making him laugh, Mommy was the hero at this very minute, not anyone else, so what if I had to go out again. I would have him giggling through the entire store. We'd sing together, we'd laugh together, he'd touch my face, he'd kiss me, he'd say hi to strangers, he'd smile at them, he'd ask "what's that mommy?!" about EVERYTHING .... haha ... I LOVED every single minute of going grocery shopping with my little guy. It was so special and something I'll treasure forever, it was as if nothing else in the world mattered.

He is going to be 3 in 21 days. He begs to walk in the stores now, which definitely presents it's own challenges and fun but I fear we are coming to the end of our strolls of face to face giggles and chats.

I made an extra trip home today just to grab my camera so I could get one last picture of him in the buggy before he is too big to sit there or no longer wants to. He fought me on getting in but he ended up staying here the whole time and we had a great visit :)

From one mom to another - enjoy every minute.. it really does fly by.