Week 8 Day 3: Cart pimpin'

I just read two poems and each one of them has a line or two that seem somehow linked to this business of parenting: "I have been giving the job / of vacuuming the desert forever" (Franz Wright) and "If there's pee on the seat it's my pee" (Diane Seuss). Although most days I do no literal vacuuming (much like the dog and cat, Gavin is not a fan of the vacuum), pee certainly does play a large day to day role.

I do, indeed, have a cold. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I don't transfer my sickness to Gavin. So far so good. If only I could have tubes in my ears to drain my head I think I'd be okay. Alas, DayQuil and NyQuil and Zicam and lots and lots of fluids will have to do.

Bottle feeding was a major pain today, literally and figuratively. Gavin was just not having it. I read that teething can make sucking painful so maybe that's his deal. His two top teeth have wasted no time making their appearance. You can feel them poking through his gums now. And they look huge, like two tiny kernels of white corn. I guess that seems like an oxymoron, but his teeth would be tiny for corn kernels, but huge for something growing inside a baby's mouth.

Our big adventure today was to go to CVS and Rite Aid. I didn't have anything I needed, per se, but I like to get us out of the house when I can. Plus Lisa bought one of those shopping cart seat covers for me off of eBay, so I figured we'd try it out. Gavin likes to ride in shopping carts. In fact, he has this little posture he assumes, kind of leaning to one side with one arm out like he's the shopping cart pimp or something. Our CVS trip went smoothly, but truth be told I actually wanted to go to Rite Aid, we just went to CVS to practice. Meaning I knew they had shopping carts at CVS but I couldn't for the life of me remember seeing them at Rite Aid. Sure enough, when we got to Rite Aid there were no shopping carts. I asked the clerk of they had any and he said, "No," without further explanation. So I said, "Really, none?" And he said, "People took 'em." I'm not sure how CVS manages to keep themselves in the shopping cart way, but Rite Aid, which is maybe one mile away, can't. But I am past the point of being able to take Gavin to a store without a shopping cart to plop him in. He's just too heavy. We managed to buy diapers at Rite Aid (buy one get one for 1 cent, holla!), but it was a trial. So next time I go to Rite Aid I'll have to get a shopping cart from CVS first.

Wow. I can totally picture my sister clapping very slowly and somberly saying, "Good story, D'Anne. Good story," a sort of family tradition in the face of very boring stories. In my defense, however, Laura is the kind of person who always wants to regale you with descriptions of her dreams. Have her tell you about the raspberry flavored dog food dream next time you see her. Fascinating stuff.

I think the NyQuil is kicking in. I apologize for anything I may or may not have said.