The Social Butterfly

My three year old loves to shop. (okay, she's a girl, it's what we do.)
But seriously, she loves to go shopping. And it isn't because she is going with the possibility of getting something from the store in mind. It's because she loves people. She loves to make them smile. She loves to make them laugh.

For awhile, every time we went to the store and saw someone older with grey hair, she'd yell out, "Hi Papa! Hi Grandma!" I'd be turning red and trying to hush her up (She has a voice that carries. She's quite naturally loud.) and get the heck out of Dodge.

She would say, "Hi!" to everyone we passed. And if they did not say hello back to her she'd say, (loudly) "I said hi!" Of course most people would laugh and say hello to her.
Maybe she thought that she was a Royal Princess, the shopping cart was her open horse-drawn carriage, (I always compared myself more to a pack-mule when carrying around all the baby paraphernalia myself...) and all the people were her Royal Subjects. There to pay homage to her Highness. I'm not sure.

What I am sure about is that I LOVE shopping carts. They are the best thing ever invented. Especially the ones with the seat belts. (Of course if you have a skinny little escape artist, this creates a whole new problem of keeping a close eye on the little darling.)
But whoever invented the shopping carts with the damned TV screen in them ought to be shot.
First off, they are battery powered, and therefore do not last that long. The battery runs down and you have to listen to them beep and talk to you telling you to take them back so they can charge up, and please don't take them outside. You cannot take them outside, because you can't pile in all your groceries into them after they've been bagged up. (actually it's probably because they are electrical equipment and if they got rained on, they'd no longer work.)
Now, I have never personally rented one of these carts. (yes, rented.) But I work at a store where they have them. They are big behemoths that take up half the aisle and look like they are about as easy to push as a lumber wagon. Usually they are filled with kids that are crying because they no longer want to be in there watching a Tele-Tubbie rerun for the second or third time.

I don't know, maybe for a quick trip around the store to get a couple of things. But no, I never make it through the grocery store in a "quick trip." And besides that, I can see my youngest thinking, "To heck with that open carriage... my Royal Subjects can come greet me at the window of my new Royal Vehicle... right after Barney stops telling me how much he loves me."

Nooooooooo, thank you. Not a chance.