Shopping.

On Monday, Elliot and I ran some errands-- Target, the grocery, etc. Pat had told me how he was walking Elliot to the park nearby-- actually letting him walk (while holding his hand, of course) through the crosswalk if there was no traffic. So, I decided it was time to venture to the store without a stroller or carrier. I carried Elliot across the street to the shopping center where the produce store is, then put him down to walk on the sidewalk to the store.

You should have seen his excitement at being able to enter the automatic doors-- little shrieks of amazement as we walked right in. I was really curious to see how this would go, since the store is definitely not toddler proof. He's getting a little squirmy, though, in the carrier and the carts, so I thought this change of pace (and challenge of sorts) would maybe engage him enough that he'd be fine. Also, I was hoping to really wear him down before dinner so he'd sleep well.

He did great. Most of the time, he held my hand. And, of course, he got tons of attention, being the cute little munchkin tooling around the store, complete with the nawed-on granola bar in-hand that he refused to leave behind at home. If I had to get something to put in our basket, I put his hand on my leg, telling him to stick nearby, and he tended to stay with me pretty well. Only once or twice did he wander a little, but he responded well to my instructions to return. He got a little antsy waiting at the deli counter and wanted to touch the french bread baguettes sticking out of a basket, but we ran into a neighbor and he was Mr. Social, cooing and giving big waves with his hand.

His habit of pointing at things an insisting on a label for them carried over to this trip just a little. It was with a row of gallon jugs of water. He insisted on pointing to each gallon, and waiting for me to answer his inquisitive noise with, "Yes, that's another bottle of water."

He seemed in awe at experiencing this very familiar place from a different perspective-- I'm sure everything seemed bigger, taller, and more intimidating. Overall, a success, if a little slow of a trip!