Running errands with a 3 year old is for the birds!

I've been told that the more one is exposed to an experience the easier and better it becomes. As for taking Carson with me when I have errands to accomplish, it's not getting easier or better. Take for instance today. We had a bit of running to do, but not necessarily a lot of items to purchase. It was mostly in and out of places which I thought wouldn't be too bad. HA! We began with a trip through the Dunkin Donuts drive thru (as usual) to get my small coffee with cream and sugar. Carson (as usual) was full of talk and questions. "Where is that car going? Who is in that car? Is that a car wash? I'm hungry. Can I have a donut? What's that dog's name? Can we play at that park? Where's my sippy cup? Is that a bank?" Literally he asked about 10 - 20 questions in a row. Talk about exhausting! He is so full of curiosity. Our next stop is to purchase salt for our softener. Luckily they too have a drive thru - so convenient! And again there is Carson in the back playing 20 million questions. So far non-eventful, but that's because Carson has been strapped in his car seat the whole time. Next stop, Walgreens. It was all good until we had to checkout. I am paying for my items, trying to keep Luke from grabbing things at the register and attempting to keep an eye on my wandering Carson. Well, sure enough I wasn't able to watch Carson close enough and he walks up to me taking a bite out of an apple. First of all since when did Walgreen's start selling produce and secondly why would Carson think it's a free for all and just pick up food and start to eat it at a store. We don't do that! So I add the partly eaten apple to the rest of the items I am purchasing and get ready to pay. I hear a lady behind me ask, "Are you buying two apples?" I look back and wonder why she would ask me that and then notice Carson has yet another apple and has begun to eat that one too! AGH! So I pay for the additional snack and make sure Carson is squeezed between my legs as I finish paying and get the heck out of the store. Unfortunately I still had 2 more stores to go to before we could go home. Next stop, Best Buy. Carson was actually pretty good in there. He had his ears plugged the entire time and kept asking me if we could leave because it was too loud. We were in and out of there in no time and at last the final stop - Target. By this time I knew Carson would have to use the potty so we stopped in the bathroom and as I am holding Luke and attempting to help Carson with his pants he starts trying to flush the toilet, pull the toilet paper out and lift the lid to the sanitary disposal bins. If he would just go pee and do one single thing it would make life so much easier for all of us. A lady walked into the stall next to us and of course here come the questions from Carson. "Who's that next to us? Does she have to go pee too? Can I look under and see?" Yeah, it was time to leave. So we wash our hands extra good and proceed to get our items. There is one thing that is not good about Target when you have a very curious child which is the service telephones that are posted throughout the store. If I stopped near one or even one that was in the distance Carson could not resist the urge to pick up the phone and begin to have a conversation with whoever was on the other end. This happened 4 different times with 4 different telephones. I am finally finished and we head to the checkout. Thankfully the checkout lady was engaging Carson in conversation which helped distract him so I could pay without another embarrassing episode. Yea, we were done and headed out the door. But Carson couldn't leave without at least one last incident. At the exit doors there was a piece of popcorn laying on the ground and Carson decided that he was going to pick it up and eat it. I stopped the shopping cart in the middle of the doors (unintentionally blocking anyone who wanted to exit the store) and tried to get him to spit it out. Well by the time he did spit it out there was a handful of people bottlenecked at the exit watching my pathetic efforts. Talk about embarrassment! These people probably thought I don't feed my boy if he has to resort to eating popcorn off the ground. I end up having to pick Carson up because at that point he wasn't into cooperating. And as I grab him and attempt to push the cart through the doors it gets jammed into the wall and there is a security panel which resembled a thermostat right at Carson's level. This child has quick hands and wouldn't you know it, he pushed a button on this panel and it made some beeping noise and I noticed it displayed a message that said "sensors restoring". I have no clue what he just did and wasn't about to find out. We booked out to the van without looking back and headed home so I could recuperate from the days errand run. The End. (This really is a true story! That's the sad part!)