Publix

A trip to the grocery store just down the road.

We arrive. Songbird, ever alert, leans out of her seat and pushes on Raindrop's diaper. "Is Raindrop poopy?" she asks. Suspicious yellow on the edge of the diaper. I lean in. She is.

This is not surprising.

The car seat is her "special place." It takes her about a 30 second trip to drop a load.

Sighing, I carefully pull her out of the seat, not quite successfully avoiding the transfer of suspicious yellow to my forearms. I take her to the other side of the car, lay her down on the floorboard, and rifle through the diaper bag. A blanket, and a nursing cover. No diapers. No wipes.

Think. I can go back home and change her, but that means putting her poopy self back in the carseat, which I just cleaned out on Sunday. I could try to wipe her off with the blanket, and let her go naked in the store....

No.

I wrap her in the blanket to contain as much of the yellow as possible. The kids hold hands, and very carefully walk across the parking lot.

Inside, I stop at the customer service desk. "Just one minute, sir," says Ryan, a clean cut fellow on managerial duty. Bro and Songbird are in one of those 20 foot long "car" carts, sitting peacefully together, thankfully.

"Yes, how can I help you?"

"Oh, I was just wondering if you have any courtesy diapers and wipes," I say.

"We should -- in the bathroom."

As it happens, a large wheelchair-bound man is ahead of us at the family bathroom. I peek in the men's room. No diapers.

Back to customer service.

"It will take just one minute, sir," Ryan says, and gets on his announcing phone. An associate comes and dashes off to the diapers. "The only thing is, I don't have any wipes," Ryan says apologetically.

"Can I get some and use them and then buy them?" I ask.

"You can do whatever you want."

To the baby section, pulling the cadillac cart with one hand. Publix unscented wipes. Back to customer service. "They're putting them in the bathroom right now."

Over to the bathroom. But there's no way to get the cart in the bathroom. Can i leave them here? No. "I need you guys to get out of the cart and come with me."

Ryan sees my dilemma. "Want me to watch them for you?"

There are, indeed, diapers in the men's room. Changed and washed, I put Raindrop in the bjorn, and return to find Ryan giving Bro and Songbird balloons. Delighted, they call to me. "I have a yellow balloon! Yellow is my favorite. And pink."

"Did you say thank you?"

Bro looks at Ryan, shyly. "Tenku."

I add my own thanks, and we move on to an uneventful shopping trip, Raindrop trying her best to bounce out of the Bjorn to catch the balloons floating just above our heads.

And publix wins some loyalty points for me today.