Worth the Hassle

As I have written about before, Sean is only willing to eat baby food. He has a very specific list of what he is willing to eat. The only cereal he eats is Del Monte's Rice with Bananas and Apples. Unfortunately, our neighborhood grocery store and Target quit selling this cereal. Now we are forced to make a trip to WalMart to buy his breakfast every week. Doug and I detest going to WalMart, especially Super WalMarts. They are so crowded, big and annoying to shop at. It's as far from our house as you can be and still be in the same town as us. We make the trip with full knowledge that it will be a hassle.

This past Sunday, the four of us loaded up in the car, wearing our Sunday slumming around the house wardrobe. We arrived at 11 am and as soon as we walked in the door, Aidan insisted he was starving for a Subway lunch. Sigh. So Doug and Aidan sat at Subway and I put Sean in the cart to race back to baby food.

On the way there, I saw a mother and her daughter chatting to friends in the aisle. I did a double take because I noticed the daughter, a young adult, had Down syndrome! Aside from when we take Sean and Aidan to school, we rarely see others in town with Down syndrome. Of course, like any mom with a kid with Ds, I whipped around the aisle to stroll back by for another look, hoping to catch their eye and smile, say hello, flash off Sean. Darn, they didn't notice us.

Went back to get the baby food, only found 4 jars of it on the shelf. Double sigh. This means we will have to come back in less than a week to re-stock. Darn you, WalMart!

Cruised back by the mom and daughter, tried to get Sean to stop gnawing on the shopping cart handle so that he could give them a big hello. Nope, they didn't notice us again.

Paid up and went in to Subway. I heard the overhead announce that Santa was in the seasonal dept and asked Aidan if he'd like to say hi to Santa. He quickly packed his food and his mouth and cleaned up.

Head waaaaaaaaay back to Seasonal Dept and see that Santa is sitting on a throne made of 24 pack Pepsi cans and has a giant 7Up Christmas tree behind him. We asked Aidan to go say hi, and he buried himself in my back. Santa held out a piece of candy and said, "Hi Aidan, want to come talk to me?"

Aidan the Chocolate Addict slowly inched his way up there. Santa asked him a few things about how he was and asked "what would you like for Christmas?"

Aidan replied "I already sent you a letter, Santa!" As in, "don't you read your mail?"

Santa chuckled and said, "Yes! I got your letter, but I'd like to make sure I got it right. Can you tell me again?"

Aidan told him he wants the Webkinz Police Dog, even though he got one for his birthday already. He wants to give it to Kenzie. He also wants a big Hot Wheels racetrack.

Santa asked if Sean would like to say hello and Sean climbed back into my womb. The photographer said, you can all go up there and take a family pic together.

oh dear.

So we did.....



How's that for Fugliest Family Photo of the Year? shudder!

We finally convinced the boys to leave and headed out. We saw another mom shopping with her 8-ish year old son with Down syndrome on the way out the door! What the Heck! Talk about timing! Guess it was worth the hassle after all.