An ordinary Wednesday

What started as an ordinary, typical Wednesday soon turned into a magical adventure filled with exotic fish, ponies rides, brightly-colored bouncing balls, acrobatic climbing, and free edible goodies complete with squeals of delight and lots of laughter!!

No, we weren't at the zoo, the circus, or even Cosi. I was grocery shopping with a precious toddler.

We were having a lunch with a dear friend (Jasper's main entree was ketchup)...

when I thought, "Since we're out and about, I might as well make a quick stop at Meijer to grab a 'few essentials'. It should only take 20 minutes or so."

Little did I know that we were about to embark on a precious and exciting adventure!! We arrive at Meijer. Jasper sat quietly and contentedly in the cart for the first .0005 seconds of our shopping trip. The free, yummy cookie from the bakery lady helped keep him calm for maybe an additional .0005 seconds. As he started unraveling and quickly becoming frustrated with being confined to the cart, I decided to embrace his energy instead of fighting it and (deep breath) let him walk with me throughout the store. Jasper's first adventure was pushing the cart.

And boy did he LOVE pushing the cart!! He pushed it forward, backward, sideways. He pushed while walking, while crawling, while attempting to slither on his belly. Pushing was THE BEST!!! Until... he saw something he could climb!

Then climbing quickly became the best!! He LOVED climbing (with Mommy's help) and climbed and climbed and squealed and climbed until he saw...

THE FISH!! Jasper has never seen fish before, so we spent about 40 minutes watching and squealing with delight over the fish. Yes, my chicken was thawing and the milk was getting warm, but I just couldn't bear to care about such mundane things when my precious toddler was SO entranced with and excited about the fish!

I finally tear us both away from the fish, finish collecting my few essentials, and think, "whew!! We did it! We're done and it only took an hour and half!" As we're waiting in line, Jasper spots oranges the lady in front of us is buying. He gets crazy excited and emphatically squeals "ball!! ball! ball!! BALL! BALL! BALL!!!!" at the top of his lungs! He really wants to play with the "balls" but I manage to distract him with the toothpaste in our cart (yes, he gnawed the toothpaste box to shreds) while the guy behind us is emphatically witnessing to me about Judgement Day.

We finally make it through the checkout (whew!) when Jasper spots the pony. His precious squeals of delight and very valiant attempts to touch the pony (located at least 25 feet away) by reaching his little arms out as far as possible melt my heart, so I take a VERY excited Jasper to the pony.

He rides the pony twice. His favorite part was pushing the green button. I think we're finally home free when Jasper discovers the vending machines.

I forgot how enticing vending machines filled with brightly colored, cheap toys can be. We spend time talking about the different shapes and colors. More kids come up to look at the exciting balls and Jasper tries his best to hug all of the kids. I apologize to the fellow moms, who don't care a bit by Jasper's enthusiastic affection for their children. By this time, my chicken is seriously thawed and my milk is room temperature, so I reluctantly tear us both away. We get outside, load up the car, and what should happen to fly over us at that moment but an airplane!!

We watch the airplane till it flies over the horizon. Satisfied that he can no longer see it, Jasper and I finish loading up the car, put the cart away, and 2 hours and 20 minutes later, Jasper, myself, and our 'few essentials' are finally headed home. :o) Jasper falls asleep before we're even out of the parking lot and I rejuvenate with an ice cold Mt. Dew.

As I was driving home, thawed chicken and all, I was thinking how blessed I am that my grocery shopping trips don't merely take 20 minutes anymore.