Shopping with toddlers the fastest cure for any shop-o-holic

I was reminded today again of why I never, ever, try to go shopping with my kids.

Summer is right around the corner and I'm working on changing out my three sons' wardrobes. It's an easy job for my two youngest: pull out the plastic tote marked with the right size of clothes inside, pull the summer clothes out, put the winter clothes in, store the tote again. 

It's a much longer and more difficult task for my oldest. He doesn't have any hand-me-downs sitting in a tote in a closet. I can do one or more of the following options when trying to clothe my ever-growing oldest son: cross my fingers and hope he gets showered with seasonal clothes for his birthday every spring (the same holds true for Christmas), spend my spring and summer hunting down garage sales or hitting up second-hand stores and sorting through piles of clothes only to come away with a few good pieces in the right size, or go shopping and buy brand-new. Whatever he starts out with, it needs to be in new condition so it makes it through him, my second son and hopefully my youngest. 

Since he didn't get any clothes for his birthday this year, and I don't have endless time to hunt for garage sales or through the racks at second-hand stores for the like-new items, that left me with the "shopping and buying brand-new" option.

My mistake: trying to do it with my two youngest along. 

I spent three hours "shopping" this morning. "Shopping" is a figure of speech. I spent two and a half hours trying to keep two squirming boys in a cart or stroller, dolling out snacks so they would sit still, helping both take drinks from their water bottles every five minutes (at which time I repeatedly kicked myself for forgetting their kid-friendly cups), trying to make each of them keep their hands to themselves and making two sprints to the restrooms (yeah - all those drinks had to go somewhere). The missing half-hour? Twenty-five minutes of it was spent at the kiddie play-land in the mall, letting them run off their pent-up energy. The last 5 minutes was how much time it took me to grab three pairs of pajamas, five pairs of shorts, five shirts and two bags of socks off the shelves in one store and make a dash for the cash register.

I hope it all fits him and doesn't clash too badly.