Last Wednesday my mom took Gracie to Wal-Mart to pick up a few Christmas gifts. Mom typically does not care to take Gracie shopping if she can help it. As you can imagine with a two year old the shopping task becomes a little more difficult. She usually will find more things in the shopping cart then she planned on buying because Gracie will take things off the shelf and put them in the cart when she is not looking. Or there is generally some nice and neat display placed where a two year old will think it is Lego Land and…well, you know where I am going with this.

My mom is the type of shopper that likes to go in and get what she needs and get out as soon as possible when she has Gracie in tow. She acts like she is on a mission and does not like to be distracted. She is like a soldier that has been given an assignment and you are lucky this time of year if you get out of Wal-Mart in one piece. “It’s a jungle in there!” she says.

My mom has a friend named Lisa that has a toddler named Hayden who is a little younger then Gracie. The four of them decided to go to Wal-Mart for one of those “quick” trips. Mom had Gracie in one shopping cart and Lisa had Hayden in another. Mom said Gracie decided she wanted to sit in the shopping cart rather then in the seat. Mom and Lisa discussed their strategy ahead of time to make this trip as quick and painless as possible. Mom had her list and Lisa had hers and they decided they would meet at a central location in the store when they were done gathering their items. Mom said she was like Dale Earnhart, Jr. on steroids going up and down the aisles of Wally World. I am surprised she did not strap a helmet on Gracie before they started on their race for the finish line.

Mom gathered nearly all her items and met up with Lisa and Hayden. She said she proudly showed Lisa her bargains when she noticed Gracie had no shoes or socks on. She was positive she had put shoes and socks on Gracie before they left for their trip. She never takes Gracie in to a store without her shoes on especially since it was rather chilly out that day. Mom said she went into panic mode and started to search frantically all through the shopping cart looking for a pair of Nike tennis shoes and pink socks. She asked Lisa if she remembered seeing if Gracie had on her shoes and socks before they went in shopping and Lisa said she remembered Gracie having them on. Mom said she looked down at Gracie and Gracie was happy as a clam in the back of the shopping cart looking like she didn’t have a care in the world. Mom rolled her eyes and knew she would have to back track and retrace her footsteps. Lisa decided she would help mom out and took a few aisles to search and mom took some others.

Up and down the tag team went searching for these tiny missing items. Mom knew if Gracie threw them out then sure enough someone would have picked them up and claimed them for their own since they were a nice pair of tennis shoes my grandmother purchased for Gracie a few months before. Mom went to the bath towel area and looked all through the white towels where she spent the majority of her time hoping Gracie stuck her shoes on the shelf. No such luck.

Off she went to search some more. Mom turned the corner to one of the main aisles when finally she found one tennis shoe with a little pink sock stuffed in it and the other tennis shoe and sock thrown out like they were being discarded. My mother said she was partly relieved and partly ready to make them a permanent fixture to Gracie’s feet. Mom picked up the shoes and socks and preceded to firmly tell Gracie she needed to keep her shoes and socks on. Mom then turned her head to where Gracie could not see her and just started laughing.