Baby Firsts That REALLY Matter!

So, everyone always talks about "firsts" for babies..."first" haircut, sit-up, crawl, da-da and ma-ma...well, those are nice, but not as practical as the first time they can sit up on their own in a grocery cart!

No more tired arms racing through a store before your bicep stamina gives out on you while trying to steer with one hand, remembering the eggs on your list, finding that perfect cut of meat, bending over to pick up the loaf of bread you inevitably dropped, telling a five-year old to "get over here" and "watch where you're going" for the 8th time...finally fiddling with the payment and bagging the goods while trying not to hold up the folks behind you. Then you maneuver to the car way out in the back of the parking lot and get some relief when you plunge that 19-pound bundle of cranky joy into her carseat and you shake out your arms, rub the creases from where she was perched on your arm/hip - then load the groceries and go...only to get home and gasp in exasperation when you realize that the one thing you really wanted to get (like, usually, something in the milk/juice category) was forgotten in the mad rush to be done with the torture that is grocery shopping with an infant!
(NOTE: The above scenario can be imagined with a "Snugly" or some other "hands-free" strap-in/sling-on contraption. The main differences are to replace "arms" with "shoulders" and "bicep" with "upper-back"...then you could make the steering of the cart easier, but the selection and reading of products and their labels gets more difficult as you peer around the curiously swiveling satelite we call a baby head that is mere inches from your nose and in your direct line of sight at all times. Not to mention the hands that grab everything you grab and the difficulty of wearing such a contraption when you inevitably have to bend over to reach into the cart to put something back and you find you can't reach the bottom of the cart because there's a 19-pound lump where your chest/stomach used to be! Other than that, all the rest in the preceding paragraph still applies.)

So, one of my favorite "firsts" - right up there with potty-training - is the first time your little one can ride all by herself in the cart! It doesn't solve all of life's problems and doesn't ensure that you'll remember everything on your list, but it does bring back a sense of ease that you didn't know you actually had before you had a baby! I actually whipped out my phone and snapped a few shots of it - Chloë loves to ride in the cart (who wouldn't - kinda looks fun, actually).