Julia and I made an epic trip to Cub Foods on Saturday to do the month's grocery shopping. She was in peak form for almost the entire 120 minutes it took - hilarious, animated, cooperative, curious. The only trouble I had was keeping her from walking across other shoppers' paths. A few incidents stand out, though. At first, she sat in our cart, which provided an excellent vantage point from which to note such engrossing sights as a "[s]miling face" on a USDA Grade-A shield painted on the wall about a thousand feet away. Seeing the produce from just above the shelves was pretty cool, too. She was especially taken with the big display of red cabbage, aka "purple yettuce."
Soon enough, Julia got bored of riding in the cart, even though she was very helpful in choosing apples, potatoes, avocados, and other items and hurling them bruisingly into their bags. So I let her down, and she trooped along with me through the store. In the Hispanic-food aisle, she found a massive jar of mango slices in juice, and yelled delightedly, "Those are some funny pickles!" Seeing Elmo on an endcap inspired her to belt out "Elmo's Song" for aisle after aisle, modifying the song so that Daddy, Mama, Genevieve, Julia, Big Bird, Oscar, and a bunch of other fwiends were mentioned in addition to the Big Red One. In one aisle, she suddenly darted away from me, exclaiming, "I see Sesame Street! I see Sesame Street!" She was mildly disappointed when she realized that it was just a logo shaped like the familiar Sesame Street sign. Her mood improved shortly thereafter when, from the back of the store, she spied a small Cookie Monster balloon (noticing the trend yet?) all the way across the store near the checkout lanes.