Madness At Trader Joe's

The other night, when we were in Trader Joe's, the children and I pretty-much gave up on the prospect of leaving there without an extended shopping engagement on Mommy's part.  I chose Madeleine as my partner during this indefinite transition.  She was the most independent of anyone - off playing in the little wooden car provided by the store for such purposes, while Ian went off to read in a corner of the store and Daniel stayed somewhere around Amy.

After awhile of playing with Madeleine, Ian came along, and I asked him what Daniel was doing.  Ian reported that Daniel had a miniature shopping cart (another Trader Joe's special), and he and some contemporary of his were rushing at each other with them, in some kind of makeshift sport.  And the best detail was the following, which Ian provided:

"They're both doing it like madchildren."

Surely, you can't call seven-year-old boys with miniature shopping carts "madmen," so I was impressed by Ian's newly coined phrase to capture these boys at their particular stage of growth and development/regression.

(July 29, 2013)