Posted by Jim at March 7th, 2004

There’s a scene in “Raiders of the Lost Ark” in which Indiana Jones desperately attempts to hang on to a truck while the driver (a Nazi soldier) attempts to shake him off.

We reenact this scene weekly at the grocery store.

In the infinite wisdom of D&W (the grocery store we visit most often), someone recently decided to replace the old “special childrens’ carts” with new “special childrens’ carts.” The old carts apparently looked too much like what they really are–rolling straightjackets.

With very little work, the old carts allowed parents to competely immobilize their children, making it surpisingly easy to take toddlers to the grocery store. Needless to say, children hated them.

The new carts take a different approach. They look like toy trucks that happen to have a grocery cart instead of a flatbed. The children (theoretically) sit in the cab.

Due to the new carts’ popularity, the seat belts turn out to be damaged more than half the time (and thus don’t work). This would be more annoying if Abby hadn’t figured out how to open them.

Now things are an awful lot like “Raiders” except that we’re trying to keep Abby safely inside while she attempts to:

1. ride on the roof,
2. lean backwards out the front where a windshield ought to be
3. hang out the side windows
4. point out all free samples
5. point out any product with particularly garish (and therefore appealing) packaging
6. reach back into the groceries for anything that looks particularly good.

I’m not sure I want to know what percentage of our sentences include the phrase “Abby, please sit down.”

As for our other daughter, Rebecca… She’s still small enough to fit in the child seat at the back of the cart. Thus she’s strapped in and high off the ground.

Someday, however, she will be too big for that seat. After that, they will both have to “sit” in the cab.

You can imagine just how much I look forward to that.