Today we took a trip to… wait for it… the supermarket.  Believe it or not, I view that as a challenging outing. 

When Miranda was small, ie, less than 30 lbs, it was no problem to go grocery shopping.  I’d just pop her in the child seat in the shopping cart and away I’d go.  But - when she got too big for the child seat, I had a problem.  I had a very strict rule of ALWAYS holding Miranda’s hand when she was walking on a hard surface, but I quickly realized that I couldn’t push a heavy shopping cart and hold her hand at the same time.  The result was that for quite some time, we either did grocery shopping as a family, so that one adult could push the cart and the other could see to Miranda, or else one adult would do the shopping while everyone else stayed home.

At some point maybe 8 months ago, however, Pete started taking both Owen and Miranda to our local small grocery store.  When he came home the first time, I asked how it was.  He said, “Fine, no problem at all.”  I asked, “Wasn’t it stressful??  How did you manage?”  He responded, “No problem, I just had Owen hold Miranda’s hand as they walked around the store.  They did fine.”  I was horrified!  Our 6 year old holding the hand of our 3 year old, who has FOP, in a grocery store????  I couldn’t imagine doing it myself, but restrained myself from instantly banning the practice.  I told myself that if it worked for him, I shouldn’t interfere…  Should.  Not.  Interfere.

Pete did these types of shopping trips with both kids for quite some time, but I couldn’t bring myself to try it.  I had visions in my head of Owen getting excited and then wrenching Miranda’s arm, or running off to look at something and tripping her, causing her to fall flat on that hard, hard floor…. 

But then, maybe 3 months ago, I was faced with an occasion when I desperately needed some groceries and I HAD to take both kids with me.  I thought about how Pete did these trips so casually, and with no stress, and realized I had to try.  We arrived at the store, and I told Owen to hold Miranda’s hand as we pushed the cart.  I’m relieved to say that we made it out intact, with no falls.  Still, I must have said about a million times, “Walking nicely, no running!  No running!  NO RUNNING!  Stay close to me!  Don’t go wandering off!”, and other similar comments.  At the end, though, I had to grudgingly admit that having Owen hold Miranda’s hand DID seem to work, even though I was a nervous wreck by the end of the trip…

I now don’t hesitate to take both kids grocery shopping on my own, and I always have Owen hold Miranda’s hand.  He is, I have to say, very responsible and does a good job, and she seems to be happy to walk around with him.  I’m still nervous and don’t like doing it, but I’m glad to have a solution to the problem.  I just breathe a little sigh of relief when I get Miranda buckled into her car seat at the end.  Phew!  �