For a year or so now, we’ve had the same grocery store routine. Gal Smiley rides in the seat in the cart; Captain Jelly Belly gets to ride in the big part with the food. Once we reach the checkout (after solemnly respecting the traditions of removing a still-wrapped package of cheese from Gal Smiley’s mouth, and rushing the Captain to the bathroom once we hit the frozen food aisle), CJB is allowed to hop out of the cart and check out the impulse buy items while I’m paying, but Gal Smiley remains in the cart, usually to charm the pants off the old lady in line behind us.
This past week, the Gal has started demanding to be let out of the cart with CJB at the checkout. The problem with letting her out is that she won’t get back into the cart when it’s time to roll out to the car. She also refuses to hold my hand or hang on to the cart while we are walking through the parking lot, because why would she do something so lame, when clearly, her fabulous outfit has been carefully designed to stop traffic? On the other hand, CJB wouldn’t dare take one step off of the safety of the sidewalk without holding my hand, so I end up pushing a loaded cart with one hand, holding on to a hysterical CJB with the other (hysterical because he is convinced his sister is going to end up as roadkill ANY SECOND NOW), and trying to nudge Gal Smiley with the end of the cart in the general direction of our car, while using the cart as a traffic shield for all three of us. It’s a challenge worthy of American Gladiators.
On our most recent grocery store visit, however, something magical happened. When we were exiting, the Gal again refused to ride in the cart or take my hand…so in a moment of inspiration, I asked her to take CJB’s hand. And she did! The two of them walked carefully hand-in-hand to the car, with CJB giving instructional advice all along (“Watch that step, and stay on this side of the cart, and hold on to my hand because THERE IS A CAR!”). My heart melted into gooey marshmallow ice cream topping, I was just so proud of both of them. I’m sure it’s not too often that you see a suburban mom wading through the grocery store parking lot with her face beaming a thousand watts of joy.
TurtleHead 
…a friend of mine is having a baby soon (October) and I was thinking about gifts to get him when the baby is born. Any suggestions? What is something that you wished you had had when your kids were born – or at least, when CJB was born (this is my friend’s first kid)?
Well, it depends on how much you want to spend.
In the more expensive range, I would highly recommend a Baby Bjorn baby carrier. It’s really a must-have for anyone with a new baby. There are other brands but Baby Bjorn has lots of features that make it the best (which I won’t bore you with now, just trust me). It will run you around $80.
Another bigger-ticket item is an Exersaucer, a little seat with a tray sort of thing surrounding it for the baby to stand in and play. These vary in price depending on the number of toys on the tray…a basic one is around $50, but you can spend up to maybe $150.
Also in that price range (around $50) is the Tiny Love Gymini, a playmat with bars that go over the top to hang small toys on. It’s the kind of thing that most new parents wouldn’t buy for themselves but babies do really like it and will play with it lots. There are less expensive playmats in other brand names as well, and they are pretty much all good — we didn’t have a Tiny Love one, we had an “imitator” but it was still excellent and worked with the Tiny Love toys, which you can buy separately.
Moving down in price, I would recommend Robeez — these are little leather baby shoes that are great for fall/winter babies as they keep their socks on. Get the 3-6M size for newborns, 6-12M size if you want them for the baby to learn to walk in (also an excellent application, as the Robeez are non-slip). You can get these at kids’ shoe stores and some finer toy stores (here in town they don’t have them at Toys R Us, I don’t think, but you can get them at Mrs Tiggy Winkles, and upscale toy chain). You can also order these online for around the same price and fabulous selection. They’ll run you around $30.
Also in the $30 price range is the Fisher Price Aquarium, a little music box that attaches to the crib and plays songs and lights up…we adored ours and most parents we know who have one prefer it to a mobile.
In smaller things, you can never have enough soothers, blankets, baby washcloths, sleepers (in the 3-6M size, they’ll need around 10-12, so buy away), and receiving blankets.
Most parents also don’t buy themselves baby toys, so those are always good. I would highly recommend stacking cups, small washable stuffed animals, rattles, and just about anything made by Lamaze, Whoozit, or Tiny Love.
Oh, bet you’re sorry you asked now, aren’t you?
Here’s the Robeez website link.
Also, something else that is good is books to read to the munchkin. I recommend these titles:
Barnyard Dance by Sandra Boynton
Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown
Brown Bear Brown Bear by Bill Martin, Jr
The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
Thanks! I’m hoping that other people don’t think of these things too. I guess baby gifts are all pretty standard.
Cute mall story. I still remember the kids driving my nuts at the mall – hiding in the clothes rack and stuff like that. Once or twice after making it clear what the rules were, they misbehaved, I left what I was going to buy in the store and I just took them right home. This did wonders for their behavior at the mall for many visits.
Kids books – ahh the memories.
One Yellow Lion.” . We got it when TheTerminator was about 3. There’s an alligator in the book that we still call an Alilooloo to this day.
JEM enjoyed the Zoe series, for example Zoe’s Rainy Day These are simple, charming stories illustrated by beautiful plasticine “drawings”.
My kids LOVE the Zoe books. I was going to include them on my list, but I’ve recommended them to several people in the past and they seem to have trouble getting a hold of them. We got Zoe’s Snowy Day free in our package from the City when CJB was born and I think I must have read it a thousand times. When Gal Smiley was born I bought the rest of the set online and now we read all four of them at least twice a day. They rock!
I’ll have to look for One Yellow Lion…I’m always on the lookout for new books for the kids.
Man, what a fantastic solution! Now that’s teamwork. 🙂