Bananas and balloons

 Cameron is usually a great shopping companion when I do my weekly routine at Wal-Mart, The Dollar Tree, and Vons (Safeway). This trifecta of favorite stores is located within the same strip mall,  which makes for a convenient but long-ish excursion.

Typically, at our first stop at Wal-Mart, he is content to simply observe the wackiness that is the atmosphere of a Southern California discount store, but by time the greeter says "Thanks for shopping at Wal-mart," he needs some extra help. After dropping the Wal-Mart purchases in the car and grabbing some secret weapons (in the form of fruit leather and animal crackers), we head to the $ store.

The $ store is a magical place filled with items such as flower festooned fly swatters, brightly colored cleaning supplies, and tacky garden decorations. We usually find ourselves playing with various items during the trip (the flyswatters are a favorite), alternating with the occasional cracker. Typically, when checking out at the $ store, Cameron is at the point when he quite vocally lodges his complaint when said flyswatter or other item is removed from his grasp, and is only moderately mollified by the fruit leather. Whilst dropping off the $ store purchases in the car, I put some nuclear secret weapons in my pockets (think of a spinning light up twirly toy and miniature trucks).

When the time comes to knock out our shopping at Vons, Cam is running on boredom and pent up adventure seeking. He usually gets through the fruit leather and animal crackers by the time we get through the produce section( read: throws any crackers and the remnants of the fruit leather out of the cart), and is done (read: throwing them out of the cart) with the toys. I get fancy and creative with pushing the cart by the side without the handles, letting him ride in amongst the groceries, etc. We usually make it out of the store without any incredible melt downs.

Today, however, was the Chernobyl of shopping trips. We didn't even have to go to Wal-Mart, and Cam was done with his snacks by the time we got down the 3rd aisle of the $ store. He was placated by a bright blue star shaped balloon while we were in the store, and he was so happy with it that I just broke down and bought it so he could have it in the grocery store. By the time we got to Vons, I had a sad and somewhat high maintenance boy on my hands, even though we even took a short detour into PetSmart (handily located between the $ store and Vons) to see some ferrets, fish, cats, and dogs to soothe his temperament.

Luckily, however, he still had the magic blue balloon and was okay chewing on the string and bopping the balloon against his head. We were picking out our produce and singing the bananas song (to the tune of "Tomorrow," from "Annie"...Bananas, Bananas, we love our bananas, they're full of po-tass-i-um.") when, in a moment of happening too fast yet taking place in the clarity of slow motion, in a painful and heartbreaking moment, the balloon separated from the string and floated up to the ceiling. Cam looked at me. He looked at the balloon. He looked back at me. He looked back up at the balloon. He pointed. And his forlorn, tragic expression tempted me to stack 8 shopping carts on top of one another so I could climb to the ceiling to rescue his balloon. I didn't, and I ended up opening a package or Crunch/N/Munch (before purchasing) to get us through the rest of the trip.

Parenthood lesson #34876: next time I will duct tape the balloon to the string. I will tie and duct tape ANOTHER string to the balloon. And I will have emergency chocolate in my purse.