WalMart...A toddler's playground!

WalMart is a place that most families visit once a week or possibly even more often, but for us it is a special treat that we only get to do on vacations! Ava loves shopping! So, we headed out to buy a few essentials (like diapers)!

We grabbed the greeters attention immediately (of course, we get stares from everyone with that huge brace on)! She asked about Ava's brace and complimented her beauty then she offered Ava a couple of WalMart stickers (I think they were the ones that they put on the return items but who knows)! The greeter stuck the stickers to Ava's brace and off we went!

Ava, like most toddlers, prefers to run like a crazy person throughout stores rather then sit calmly in a shopping cart. It was getting a little late and to avoid a cranky-sleepy power struggle I decided to simply hold her hand through the store and resort to "cart restraint" only if necessary.

Ava shops using all of her 5 senses which leads to plenty of stop-and-go shopping. We stopped to sniff the flower bouquets and we tried on all of the bangle style bracelets. These types of things are very normal for us while shopping. Near the end of our shopping experience, the WalMart excitement began to get to Ava. She started to get a little wild and silly.

It all started as we walked past the lingerie department, Ava pulled me over towards the bras and stuck her face into them! She then proceeded to shake her head back and forth (yes folks, she was motor-boating the bras)!  We were almost finished shopping and just had to stop at the produce section for a few last items.

Ava was holding my hand and dragging me past all of the different fruits, touching some and sniffing others. We approached the apple display and she bent over. I assumed that she was simply sniffing the apples much like she had already done to the grapes and peaches. Wrong! When she stood up I noticed that one apple had a huge bite taken out of it. Where was that bite you might ask? In her mouth! Yes, she had helped herself to a tasty bite of apple. After that, I decided that we were definitely finished shopping.

We got in line at the checkout and as I was placing my items on the belt, Ava grabbed the display rack causing an avalanche of gift cards. What a mess! I had her help me pick them up and then we headed to the car. On the way back to Grammie and Grampa's house I noticed that she was being awfully quiet. I turned around and noticed that she had stuck her WalMart stickers all over her face! Such a silly girl! At least she really enjoyed her shopping experience!