Growing Up Geeky: I just reminded myself why I never take all 3 kids grocery shopping

So fast forward ohh maybe 9 months and Carina turned 6 ~~sort of recently~~ a while back. We finally got around to having her birthday party and with how busy we've been it became necessary to take all 3 kids to the grocery store earlier this week to order Carina's cake.

Our trip resulted in my laughing so hard I was crying (or was it the other way around? Definitely the other way around) and needing a drink before 5 PM on a Wednesday afternoon.

We arrived at the grocery store and to my dismay not a single obnoxious race car double-cart was to be found. I put Serafina in a normal cart and the girls each grabbed one of the tiny carts. One had a "customer in training" flag and the other didn't and this was a HUGE PROBLEM. Argument over who had the right to lay claim to the fancy flag cart and who had to suffer the pains of the cart sans flag ensued.

Since we were there to pick out Carina's cake for her birthday party I let her steer the cart with the flag and we headed over to the bakery counter. We flipped through the book of designs a few times and nothing piqued her interest. I asked her to please look again, and she finally settled on the Disney Fairies cake. I asked the employee how many people it serves and she didn't know and none of the other employees knew so she had to call the cake decorator to ask. After a few minutes she returned and Carina announced she didn't want that cake anymore.

I looked at her incredulously (like, why did we just wait 10 minutes and make her call the cake decorator, then?) Now she wanted the Minions cake. And the employee didn't know how many people it serves. She went to find out and I started filling out the order form in the meantime. Oh lookie there, it says right on the order form what size to get for our number of guests.

Cake ordered. Aurelia spotted one of the obnoxious race car double-carts that had since been abandoned about 20 feet away and clearly "we MUST go get it Mommy because I want to wiiiide!" In went Aurelia and Serafina. We returned the other cart and the tiny cart sans flag. We passed one of the sample "bubbles" with danish and I handed one to each of the ladies but Aurelia didn't want it.

Off we went in the monstrous race car cart that takes way too much energy to push and of course the avocados we needed were as hard as cannonballs. We stopped for another "bubble" this time with strawberries and Serafina dropped hers and yelled "oh no!" so loudly people stopped to make sure she was okay. About 30 seconds later they returned to make sure she was okay once again when Carina's tiny "customer in training" cart somehow FELL OVER striking Serafina in the face with the plastic "customer in training" flag. I picked her up out of the cart and comforted her as she was crying hysterically. Customers and employees alike swarmed around us and asked if I needed any help. She was fine, fortunately. I, on the other hand...was about to lose my mind.

We grabbed the few remaining things we needed and as soon as we were all the way across the store Aurelia proclaimed that now she wanted a piece of that danish back near the store entrance.

After a danish detour and then the checkout line it was time to return to the car. I buckled in Carina, Aurelia, then Serafina and only after all clasps were fastened did I realize that we were missing Serafina's beloved monkey lovie. TAKE MY EYES BUT NOT "MAA-MAA" MONKEY. I prayed to God please please please let the monkey be somewhere in the vicinity because I am not unbuckling everyone and going back inside. I ran over to the cart return and breathed a sigh of relief as I found monkey under the seat. Time to go home. And have a drink. Cheers🍸

The party was today. I still can't believe she's 6 years old.