The importance of race cars

There is a reason that toddler, trouble and tantrum all begin with T. I'm not quite sure what that reason is, but it sounded good... I took Even to the store tonight because that's what a mother does when she's out of milk. To my unrestrained horror, we quickly discovered that all of the car-style shopping carts were in use. Commence tantrum. By the 2 yo, not me! My look was one of sheer terror I'm sure, though I tried to be brave as I steered the little siren towards a regular cart. You know the problem with all 6 cars being gone? Besides the screaming and the yelling and the pleading? I swear we saw every single one of them as we went through that store. What should have been a leisurely shopping trip turned into a mad dash to gather milk, diapers, and Chef Boyardee amidst the screams of "DOWN!" and "UP!" and "DADDY!" (mind you had he been with daddy he would've cried mommy). You know those horrible children you occasionally meet in a busy grocery store at 5:30 in the evening after having completed a hard Monday at the office and you want nothing else but to shop and go home but their piercing wails follow you up every aisle you wander? That's my child. That's my child without his car shopping cart. Not that I didn't try to stop him, I did! I tried to let him push, he ran in to things. I tried to carry him as I pushed, I ran in to things. I tried to seat him properly. I tried to put him in the basket part. I swatted his butt. I pleaded, I threatened, but short of getting home and turning on the sprinkler (merely so he could watch, he wouldn't actually play in that frigid water) would he shut up. The tantrums continued off and on throughout the evening, despite letting him drive the car (no, not with the keys, stupid!), taking him to the park, giving him a bath and following it all with ice cream. He now lays on the couch buried beneath and 5-foot long blue tiger. Scratch that, I've just spent the last 15 minutes rocking him back to sleep... Think we better abandon that subject...