The frustrations of shopping with a three year old.

Argh! That's just for starters.

I promised Principessa a trip to the bookshop today with the added motivation of picking up the last of my Christmas pressies. She's been pretty good with going shopping of late, so I thought it wouldn't be any problem. What's that phrase about not counting chickens?

First we went to Boots. Christmas is the time for smellies, after all! So I bought the last few adult pressies, and a hat and mitten set for Principessa. But she happened to find a bag of Christmas choccies that she absolutely had to have, then went on to try and pick up the 'sweet' looking smellies. It was hell trying to get her to put them down. Then when we got to the till she tried to pick up a few bags of crisps and a pack or two of Smints. Grrrr! Then the chocolates... We had to rip the label off the bag because she wouldn't part with them. Pain!

Next to the bookshop. On the trip up to the back of the store we passed a watercolour painting kit. Oh, it was so necessary for her to have them. I ended up having to compromise with her to stop her having a tizzy in the shop by buying a pebble painting kit. Up to the kids books finally, and she sat and thumbed her way through all the 'In The Night Garden' books. But once she had 'read' through them she didn't want to take any home. Thank God! Problem was, she found a Charlie and Lola activity set that she has only had bought for her twice already. Familiarity breeds contempt where spending £7.99 on something that gets thrown away after it has no more use (sticker books really have no point except for the five minutes they are actually useful!) occurs.

So now we have finished looking at the books, so I pick up a mythology book, one of the 'Ology' series (the one that includes 'Dragonology' and 'Pirateology'. I think these books are fantastic.), and down to the magazines to buy a writers mag. To the tills, and that's where the trouble starts. I really hate the till queue trap. You know what I mean. The horrible little shelves alongside the line of the queue where they put things that they think may be exactly-what-you-need-and-can't-do-without-but-only-realise-you-need-and-can't
-do-without-until-you're-in-the-queue. Well, it has a world of things that Principessa needs-and-can't-do-without! So it's tizzys galore when we hit the queue, exactly the thing I don't-need-and-can-do-without. We finally get out of the queue, pay for the stuff, and head off up to the coffee shop. More tizzys to follow, but I can't be bothered going into them!

Out of the bookshop/coffeshop, and off to HMV. "Mummy, we have to go to HMV to buy a new DVD of Night Garden." Well, I had promised her about two weeks ago that the next time we went shopping. We got that DVD without much trouble. Phew.

Then to the Early Learning Centre to buy the last Christmas pressie. We don't have too much trouble here, there is plenty to keep Principessa occupied. But therein lies the problem, so much to do, too little time to do it in. We go to pay for the pressie, but Principessa knows when you pay, you leave. Stink is kicked up. Not enough people on the tills. Waiting in line for way too long. Principessa runs off and finds a chalkboard to draw on, but also finds paints and tries to open them. Noooooo! I send Grandand off to sort Principessa out, but while he is off the till becomes free and I can't push my chair with one hand whilst holding stuff in the other hand. This is the one flaw of a self-propelling wheelchair. A lovely woman standing behind me helps by pushing me to the till, so I pay, Grandand comes and pushes me from the tills and to the exit, but Principessa doesn't want to leave. I have to threaten to take the Night Garden DVD back to HMV if she doesn't come with me. Luckily enough that works. We leave the shops, and not a minute too soon!

Finally home, and tizzyfits continue. There's a problem with the DVD player, so there is no Night Garden. Then Grandand almost crashes the computer, so I have to argue with Grandand to push the table over to me so I can fix it. It's bad enough having to calm Principessa down, but trying to get past a Grandand's stubbornness, that is something else entirely! I fix the computer and all is fine for while.

On the plus point, when I got home from the shops - parcels galore! All the stuff I had bought from Ebay before the postal strike had arrived (books, books, and more books). Whoop-de-bleeding-do! About time too. But, phew, I'm glad it's all here and that none of it was lost.

Now I must go, as the tizzyfit mistress is off again. She has been told to leave the pebble kit alone until tomorrow, but all must be had now.

Day 15: 304 words
Day 16: 100 words so far.