So with nothing but time to kill tonight (seriously, when's the last time that I could say that?) and Judah being SO SAD -- hysterics, really-- whenever he gets left home with a parent while Elijah gets to go on a trip, we decided to take a family outing to Stop and Shop to buy Cool Whip... because 4th of July desserts all should have Cool Whip on them. ALL OF THEM. (You heard me.)
I've been working what is an insane amount for me (between 55-60 hours a week) in preparation for our upcoming vacation on Friday, but today signaled the end of the brutal stretch, and it seemed like an excellent time to hang out with Judah and Elijah and have some fun before Rachel swooped away with Elijah and about ten other friends to the Danvers fireworks.
It should have triggered something in my head when it took us five minutes to get out of the driveway because Elijah needed to buckle himself in. Note to self: the independent stage doesn't equal the fast stage.
When we arrived in the parking lot and wandered past a few people bewildered by Judah's barking "Hi there!" at them, we managed to progress into the store, where both boys promptly jumped into one of those little cars that sit in front of the actual carts. Once again, we took five minutes to buckle ourselves in-- scratch that. Only Elijah did this. Judah just looked at him with his head cocked, as if to say, "What's the holdup, o large one?"
After the fifteen minutes of prep, it only took us 30 seconds to find the Cool Whip when yours truly found ice cream, which is the real reason I've only lost 15 pounds instead of the forty that you can see above that Rachel is down. (Damn you, Haagen-Daas!) So that took another couple of minutes to haggle out what flavor-- Moose Tracks!
Anyway, our two little racecar drivers aimed us at the cookie bakery and asked so politely that we figured we'd wander around for another five minutes. This seemed like a really good idea until we got to the fish section, where the fish either smelled really fresh or really stale. We didn't stick around long enough to find out.
We did, however, manage to pick up just one teensy package of granola bars on the way to the checkout.
(If you're keeping score at home, we're at twenty-eight minutes and two extra items on a trip that was supposed to be Rachel and LJ for Cool Whip lasting ten minutes tops. But we're not done yet.)
At long last-- the checkout line... and empty to boot! I was stuck in tabloid limbo while Rach paid for the items. I had a few traditions to learn. LJ started barking at me, and when I finally figured out what he was saying, it turned out that he needed to get the receipt for us. (Apparently, without a receipt we are not really paying for it.) All this entailed was him unbuckling (30 seconds) and attempting to snatch at it unsuccessfully (another 30 seconds) before I finally figured out that I needed to push the cart forward so he could leverage himself forward (this was actually mercifully quick!) followed by him getting back into the cart and re-buckling himself (1 minute).
As we strolled out, Rachel whispered to me, "Well, at least we know he's safe in a car!"
And so he is... have a wonderful night all!
