Cleanup in aisle 5

Mike and I love having Evan in our lives, and one thing that we get a huge kick out of is his budding independence. We enjoy watching him learn how to do things himself, and the thrill he gets from being a "big boy". It's pretty amazing.

One place we've noticed him changing is when we go shopping. No longer content to sit in the cart, Evan wants to help push it. Or perhaps he'll walk beside it as we cruise the aisles. He knows the layout of the stores we frequent, and will often steer us toward his favorite sections. Now that he's gotten taller, he can reach all sorts of things (Gatorade, Junior Mints, Cheesy Poofs). He goes to the deli himself to request popcorn chicken. At checkout, we'll find several items he's thrown in the cart when we weren't paying attention.

Evan now makes shopping an adventure. I can hardly remember the days when he used to just sleep in his little carrier, hooked on to the cart, as we completed our errands with ease. Little did we know the fun we were missing.