Anytime it rains, I suddenly develop a severe case of cabin fever. Today was no exception. Fortunately for me, Alexis doesn't melt when she gets wet. So she and I spent our day running errands, darting in and out of stores while one of us avoided puddles and the other went to great lengths to find each and every one of them. I'll let you figure out who ended up with the soaked through and through Dora tennis shoes.

While we were at the grocery store, I had the sudden realization that things have indeed changed. First there was the fact that Daddy was nowhere to be seen. Grocery shopping is usually a joint venture crammed into twenty minutes on the weekend. It involves much running, yelling, screaming, and usually ends in lots of money spent, and not much food to show for it.

Today was a little bit different experience. I'm a little slow, so I forgot that Alexis only battles over sitting in a cart when Daddy is around. I was all lecturing her about how she had three choices--sit in the cart, sit in the cart, or sit in the car--when I realized she had already crawled into the little car attached to one of the carts and was trying to buckle her seatbelt. Independence is a wonderful thing.

I started out flying through the store, glancing at my watch every few minutes, then suddenly stopped in my tracks. There was no race. No deadline. No reason to rush. So Alexis and I enjoyed a leisurely stroll the store, complete with time to check labels. Can I just say there is a whole heck of a lot of unnecessory things in a package of sweet potato fries? And did you know that there are over ten varieties of cinnamon raisin bread? And that they were not all created nutrionally equal?

Near the cereal aisle, I had a brief moment of sheer pride. A very haggard-looking Mom was struggling to make it through the store with her 3 (or so) year old son. As he gave her absolute fits, she muttered, "Why can't you behave like that little girl?" Oh yes, she was referring to my daughter. I know because I looked all around to make sure that wasn't some angel somewhere nearby. It's probably fortunate that I didn't run into the same woman in the dairy aisle. That would be right around the time Alexis suddenly declared herself hungry and couldn't seem to understand why she couldn't just eat the "cheesebreadcrackerswafflesbananaspotatoesicecreambeanscarrot PLEASE." I'm not sure if she was reading our grocery list or just reciting every food word she could think of a the time. I do know that there is simply no way to explain to a one-year old that you can't eat food just because it is all around you.

It's been a long time since I shopped for groceries while most of Pittsburgh was at work. I think I liked it.