My First Quick Trip to the Store with All Three Girls

Generally, a stop at the grocery story with all three girls is slow because I either use the double stroller or take the twins out of their carseats and wear them in a tandem baby carrier.   There's nothing quick about carseat buckles, tandem baby carriers, or double strollers.

But this week I needed to buy just one thing that was located right at the entrance, near the check-out area.  So I grabbed a baby carrier under each arm, asked Katy to hold onto one of the baby carrier handles, and began walking as fast as I could because baby carriers are HE-AVY!

We were only in the store for about five minutes but each person who saw me walking with a baby carrier in each arm either made a comment, backed-up quickly to let me pass, or stared with eyes the size of saucers.  One woman exclaimed, "I don't know how you do it!"  I replied, "I only buy one thing at a time."  I'm so clever sometimes. 

Once back at the car with our rotisserie chicken, which Kay carried for me in her free hand, I set the babies in the narrow space between my car and the car parked next to me.  I placed their carriers one behind the other so that I would have enough space to open the car door.  After opening the door, I left the baby furthest from me on the ground as I lifted the baby closest to me into the car.

Just as I was lifting the first baby into the car, a man came up to me and offered to help in very broken English.  I know now that he meant well, but it only scared me.   I was trapped between two cars with a bulky infant carrier in my arms and my other baby in a very portable baby carrier closer to him than to me.  The man, who sensed my fear, quickly began apologizing and trying to explain that he thought he knew me from his church.  I tried to process what he was saying, but I couldn't stop watching his movements like a hawk, which only made the man more nervous.  Within a few seconds, the man's wife appeared, who indeed turned out to be a fellow church member.  I had never met her husband and therefore, didn't recognize the man offering to help.

Eventually, we had a little laugh about my fear that this man was going to "robar mi bebe."  I'm pretty sure, however, that every time I see this man at church now I will think about the time I feared he was going to kidnap my baby.