Put a Fork in Me--I'm Done

There's a very good reason we don't do all day shopping sprees. I remembered it about three stores into our day, right around the time that I was running through the aisles trying to catch-up with a certain independent one-year old. Not only is Miss Independent a constant flight risk, she seriously could care less if there are any parental figures anywhere within sight. She won't talk to strangers, but she will fly by them as she tries to touch every single object on planet Earth. Go ahead, chase her. She'll just run faster.

Our strategy for dealing with this constant battle is to play parent tag. We take turns being the parent assigned to making sure Alexis neither kills herself nor disappears into thin air. When one parent can't take it anymore, he or she calls "you're it" and it's the other one's turn. It's a great strategy for a one or two hour walk around the mall, but stretch it to more than four hours and suddenly no one is willing to be "it". Thank goodness Grandma was willing to take a turn or two. Otherwise, I would have slid Alexis in the basket underneath some unsuspecting stranger's stroller and ran for dear life.