more than just an errand

Oh, the grocery store. I dread heading to Wal-Mart. Aside from random strangers sticking their grubby paws into the car seat and caressing my 4 month old's face or elderly people grabbing my 2 1/2 year old by the arm and expect her to carry on a conversation with them about how pretty her blonde curls are (good luck!), it's just not my favorite place to go. People will really get their feelings hurt that she won't give them hugs and be sweet and talkative with them. I wish people would be a little more understanding to the fact that she's TWO! I've had to have so many conversations with Ella about how we aren't mean to people who try and talk to her. I'll tell her "If you don't want to talk to them, just smile and wave. You don't have to give them the meanest face and shout No! at them." I can tell her that all day long, but the fact of the matter is that she does not like strangers coming up to HER and forcing a conversation. She does, however, stop random strangers and talk to them. It has to be on her terms.

Anyhow, as the three of us trudged through Wal-Mart yesterday I realized something. This is more than just an errand. This is an outing. With a 2 year old, getting out of the house is exciting for her. She had a few people grab her, which makes her very uncomfortable. But she also would see random people walking by and for some reason she felt like they wanted, no, needed to know about the chocolate covered sunflower seeds in her hand that she picked out for the day's trip. I watched her converse with several people and realized that instead of dreading our trips to Wal-Mart, we should enjoy our time with the rest of the world. :) Our trips usually take us at least and hour and a half, lots of times two hours. We meander through the store and I have found that if I don't rush her and we just take our time looking at everything and walking the aisles, she really does have a great time. Schedules are great, but there's nothing wrong with throwing the schedule out of the window every once in a while when we can.