Shopping

Just to clarify one thing, I am not on my own yet. In fact right now my wife and I are enjoying a great time before she goes to school. I'm still working at the college but my classes are all at night, and I haven't started my new job yet, and the design stuff I just get done in my spare time anyway.  So after Nikki goes to school in the morning, Kara and I get to do a lot of stuff together with Lukas and Mollie.
Today Lukas and Nikki were at tumbling so Kara, Mollie and I went to the store. Kara says that whenever she goes to the store by herself, she can get everything done pretty quick, but if you add Mollie to the mix, you have to triple whatever time it would have normally taken. Usually when I go we last about five minutes before Mollie is so naughty that she has to go out to the car. Today was not different.
Mollie did not want to be held, or put in the cart, or have a shoulder ride. She wanted to walk, and then run.... away. She first ran into the little part of walmart with all the stupid kiddie rides (like the horse that just goes up and down, and some weird Garfield toy that just shakes). She kept yelling out "I do" which in her mind means "I want that".  I picked her up and the whole exorcism roll began, I guess all you parents know. Then the straighten out the body really fast so that dad can't hold you up anymore and you almost fall on your head trick. Then once your on the floor the limp body so that I have to physically gather her up and carry her, and then it starts again.
We put her in the cart, but not in the little seat part, she can get out of that way too easily. She has to sit in the big part of the cart because the walls are much higher and it gives us a little bit of a warning before she jumps out. She was not happy. Well, not happy doesn't quite describe it. She kept yelling out "No Daddy, No Mommy". Some people in the store stopped and gave a little frowny face and said "Oh she's so sad". This is where I turned and said, "Yep we're just lousy parents". We get some funny looks at the Wal-Mart, but mostly people understand that our child is crazy.
She tried to jump out several times but that's normal, right? Anyway, she eventually settled down once we got a case of bottled water for her to sit on, then she spent the rest of the time pretending to bounce up and down on it. She really started to act like a nice baby at that point. No more exorcisms, and no more suicide attempts by jumping out of the cart. And yes, it took us about 45 minutes to pick up about 10 items (which I thought was pretty good, because it takes me at least a half hour to find anything that Kara sends me to the store for).

this is her attempting to escape