A good helper

I remember pushing the grocery cart for my mom. I always thought she was being nice and letting me do it. Now I know whats true! She was happy the day my brother and I were big enough to push for her and glad to pass it along. I had that day yesterday. It's so helpful to have someone so enthusiastically following you with the cart while you shop with your hands free, and at the same time have your kid occupied and entertained!! At first Chloe thought she couldn't do it, but with a little bit of encouragement, she was excited. She was playing a lot, but the store wasn't too busy and I didn't want to ruin the moment. She needs practice on turning, stopping, and going slow...okay, it was kind of a mess a couple times, but she did good for her first try and considering the fact that she can barely see over the handle. I even let her "ride" on the back a bit as she was pushing. I remember my brother and I got pretty rowdy with those things sometimes. I don't think I'd be able to handle watching her do anything super dangerous, but I was smiling watching her have fun and mess up and practice. She was getting grins and smiles and words of encouragement from other shoppers.
One of the rules we have when we are out at stores is that she can't ask for things. If she does, the answer is no. This rule has one exception: if she's asking for fresh food. We will always buy fresh food for her within reason, so to be sure it won't go bad. This time she asked for watermelon, oranges, bananas, a cucumber, and kale. We got one of the little seedless watermelons, and considering we no longer get plastic bags from the store I of course, forget my reusable bags, we carried our food in our hands. I have Chloe her watermelon she wanted. About half way to the van she wanted me to carry it and let me know how tired she was getting. But I had her stick it out. When we got home she started asking if I'd take the watermelon, then she stopped and said she was going to take the melon and the cucumber at the same time. I told her I was glad she changed her mind and decided to try hard.