We had been in Wal-Mart about 15 minutes or so when Canon decided his carseat just wasn't the place for him. I was trying to develop my newest pictures - you know, the ones from my FREE camera - at this point, so I took him out and held him. I don't know if you've noticed from all the pictures, but my "long and lean" son has slowly grown into somewhat of a monster. He's huge! I can't be exactly sure, but about two weeks ago he weighed 18 pounds, and two weeks before that he weighed slightly less than 16. So odds are, he's pushing 20 pounds at this point! Needless to say, it is quite difficult to carry such weight in your arms while pushing a buggy around the most inconveniently arranged store in the Western Hemisphere. But a mom will do anything to keep her child happy, so I started carrying the Big Lug all over the store.
After several minutes, I passed another mom with a child who was about Canon's size, and he was sitting up in the front part of the buggy. He looked very comfortable there, supporting himself by holding onto the front bar and calmly watching his mom make various decisions about what to buy. I decided to try it. Canon has been working hard on sitting up on his own, and he's getting pretty good - even Mrs. Sharon says so. Why had I not thought of it myself?!? I slid Canon into the seat and half-pushed, half-supported him the rest of the way around the store. Remember how I said Canon is a bit of a monster? And remember how I said that this other child looked about his size? Well, he was probably about two or three months older than Canon - you know, a normal-size baby. Canon did not fair quite as well as the other boy in his buggy. He rolled and leaned and slid all over that seat. He tried to chew on the front bar and on the metal rails on the back of the seat (eeeewww, gross!). But he did show moments of balance, and it was definitely better than carrying him, so I decided I had made a good decision . . .
. . . Until we made it to the check-out counter. I had bought a very large bag of dog food, and I had to let go of Canon to load it into the back of the cart. It was only a few seconds, but as soon as I had walked behind him, I watched Canon slowly start leaning to the right. It really happened in such slow motion, I wondered why I did not simply reach out and catch him before his head hit the side of the cart . . . but I didn't. It wasn't a loud bang or even a hard one, but it really ticked this monster off. He only cried for a few seconds, but at one point his mouth was wide open, eyes closed tight, face beet red, and no air or sound came out of his mouth. I realized this might be the first time he's ever gotten hurt (at least in front of me. Apparently, Barry dropped him one morning after I left for work, and he gave a pretty good show then, too).
Of course, I swooped him up and got out of there as soon as possible. On the way out of the store, I decided it's never too early to teach your child to "get back on the horse," so I put him back in the buggy and headed to the car. I took a couple of pictures there to commemorate the experience.
At the end of the adventure, he was a little bit happy . . .
. . . a little bit frustrated . . .
. . . but mostly just exhausted. Aren't we all after a Wal-Mart experience?
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