Oh boy.
With few exceptions, Addy doesn't use her walker when we go out. She just isn't quite fast enough in it to be safe while walking in a parking lot (never mind how long the actual shopping would take). That's easy enough: just carry her and the walker from the car to the store, then set her up inside and go. The shopping is still kind of a molasses pace, but that's not the end of the world. The other issue is that she must wear her KAFOs when walking and the logistics of that is tricky because she can't ride in her carseat in the tall braces so we have to put them on at our destination and then remove them before departing.
One option is to sit in the back of the van and get the braces on (not always fun if the weather is yucky) and then carry her with her braces on (kind of awkward because the braces don't let you hold her comfortably) plus carry the walker across the parking lot and into the store. Another option is to tote kiddo + braces + shoes + walker separately into the store (possibly using a shopping cart) and then find someplace to put on braces (probably the restroom, but even that doesn't sound super fun).
We went for option 1 this morning (put on braces in the van). I carried her, with the walker slung over my shoulder, from our mercifully close handicapped parking spot and into the store. We got from the front door to the main aisle in front of the registers when Addy looked up at me and said, "Where's my wheelchair? I'm tired." Which brings me to the third prong that has to be balanced when using the walker in a store: what to do when she gets tired?
We could have brought the wheelchair with us (I didn't, but I could have). Or I could carry her and the walker (or not) Or we could find a cart (which we did, but I made her walk across to the other entrance to get it. She made me stop at every impulse bin along the way to check out what all they had. Tuché, Addy.) Either way, there are still braces that aren't totally compatible with sitting plus a walker to deal with. (Addy's short braces sometimes catch on the edge of the buggy seat when we try to pull her out, so tall braces are even more fun to get shimmied back out when you're done.) I opted for crossing my fingers and leaving the KAFOs on and folding up the walker and putting it in the cart.
Then we could finally start looking for what we came for.
45 minutes after arriving, we found ourselves unsuccessful in our mission to find dinosaur stickers. We purchased Superman and alien stickers instead.
Now to get back to the car.
It was a bit chilly out this morning, so I chose to extract my bionic preschooler from the cart while we were still inside the store, which meant I needed to carry her (braces on) plus the walker plus the disappointingly non-Dino-riffic stickers and still be able to get my keys out to unlock the van. Perhaps I could have removed the braces in the store (they come off more easily than they go on), then put her back in the buggy seat, and used the cart to tote everything to the van, but I didn't.
And that is why, when my kiddo asked me this morning if she could walk at the store, I tried to talk her out of it. But it's also why I went ahead and did it. It won't get easier if we don't keep trying. Eventually we'll find a rhythm to everything. It may not ever really be "normal," but it should become a routine.
PS, we ended up finding dinosaur stickers at Dollar Tree.
