Shopping with Kids

While Aaron was having a nap this afternoon, I took the two other boys to the store with me to pick up a few things so that Mike could get some school work done.  The trip involved two stops, one to the dollar store and one to get some groceries.  Easy-peasy, I thought to myself, I only have two kids, this will be a breeze.
We got ourselves unpacked from the van at the first stop and I arranged Nate in the cart while Peter walked beside me.  Down the second aisle, while I was looking at something on the other side, Nate grabbed a DVD off the shelf.  How did he even reach that??  I attempted to remove it from his grasp and put it back on the shelf, but it is amazing how strong a grip a ten-month old can have, not to mention the attitude.  The blood-curdling screams coming out of my sweet, sweet little boy quickly changed my plan of action to wait-until-he's-distracted-and-leave-it-behind-in-another-aisle.  Ok fine, you can hold onto the movie as long as you don't suck on it.  Too much.
Down the next aisle, there were a few more people.  One of these was a woman who definitely wouldn't have fit in with the tall Dutch people we spend most of our time socializing with.  She was, let's say, quite petite.  Being accustomed to people of greater stature, Peter turns to me and loudly announces, "Mom, that lady is very short!!"  Hmmm.  That couldn't have been my child that just said that, could it?  I think I'll just ignore the comment, and maybe he'll forget about it.  And hey, maybe she didn't even hear.
Yeah right.  "MOM, is that lady VERY SHORT?"  My face is getting pretty red by now.  I can't look the poor lady in the eye as I try desperately to hustle my inquisitive toddler down the aisle.  He continues, pointing emphatically, "MOM, I have a QUESTION FOR YOU.  Is that lady VERY SHORT???" Agh!  We pass by a number of smirking customers on our way to a quiet corner in the store where I explain to Peter that it isn't polite to talk about other people in the store.  As we continue our shopping, I do my best to make sure we don't end up in the same aisle as that poor lady again.
We find what we need and make our way to the checkout, after wrestling the damp DVD away from my less-than-impressed teething baby.  Only one more stop to go.
Thankfully the grocery store wasn't too eventful.  We managed to round the aisles and pick up everything that we needed in a fairly organized and time-efficient way.  By the time we were done with our shopping, however, it was high time to make it to the checkout, as Nate was approaching nap-time and was running out of patience with his spot in the cart.  Peter helped me load our items onto the belt, and I paid for them before grabbing my bags to pack the food up.  As I began packing, I discovered that I was missing a number of items from my list that I had definitely put into the cart.  Somehow, while masquerading as a cooperative and cheerful little baby-shopper, Nate had managed to grab a number of groceries and dispose of them at some point during our shopping trip without me knowing about it.  I really wonder why it is that he can hold onto an item for dear life that is not on the shopping list, while he feels the need to dispose of items that we actually do need.  I guess I'll send out my cyber-apologies now to the grocery store workers who find random items all over their store.  Loading my children into the van afterward and discovering the bag of candy that Peter had stealthily removed from the grocery bag and hidden behind his back, I was glad that I didn't have Aaron with me as well to add his own brand of mischief.  Shopping with kids is always an adventure!!