Mom's Morning Out

I went shopping this morning. I bought three new outfits, two pairs of sunglasses, some arts and crafts supplies, and some comfy new socks. Ahh, isn't that the life?

Yep, that's my life, and I do it all with two little kids in tow. Let me go into a bit more detail about my morning out :). The outfits (actually pajamas) and socks were for Hannah, who has completely grown out of everything smaller than 3-6 months (and that size won't last much longer, either!). The sunglasses were for Tommy because a certain little guy we all know and love popped one of the lenses out of his daddy's shades on one occasion (we put it back in, so for a while Tommy went around looking a little ghetto :)...), and on another occasion this same little dude popped out the other lens and lost it altogether. The arts and crafts supplies were a coloring book and a pack of "biiiiiiig 'rayons" (big/fat crayons) for Adam. The crayons were these really cool double-ended ones, with one color at one end and another color at the other end. They seemed like they'd be pretty sturdy, too, since they were so thick. We got everything but Hannah's stuff at Target, and as were leaving the store Hannah started crying. So I packed us all up and drove to the back of the parking lot and parked under a tree for some shade. I gave Adam his new coloring book and brought Hannah up front with me to nurse her. After a few minutes Adam said, "Mommy, fix it?" He held out one of those "sturdy" crayons, which he had snapped cleanly in half. Luckily the paper around it wasn't ripped. I stuck the broken half back in the paper wrapper and gave it back to him. Almost immediately he said again, "Mommy, fix it?" He held out the same crayon, only this time the paper had slid down when he started coloring and was covering the tip. "Just use another color, bud," I told him. Stupid idea. He broke the next crayon, too, and the next. It's a good thing that pack was only a buck.

After I finished nursing Hannah, we drove up the road to return some clothes to Osh Kosh and Carter's. As I stood at the counter chatting with the Osh Kosh associate, Hannah very audibly filled her pants (she was in the Baby Bjorn). Adam promptly informed me, "Mommy, beebee Hannah is stinky." What would I do without that kid? The associate told me there was a changing table in the bathroom, so we trooped to the back of the store and into the small restroom. Of course, my changing pad had been taken out of the diaper bag and not put back in, so I spread paper towels all over the changing table and laid Hannah on it. While I was doing this, I explained to Adam that he shouldn't touch anything in the bathroom. "Yeah," he said vaguely. I changed Hannah as fast as I could, but it wasn't fast enough. Adam got down to business right away. First, he threw his hat into a corner and sat down on the floor. I told him not to sit on the dirty floor and to pick up his hat. He crawled over to where his hat was, put it on, and sat down again. I told him again not to sit on the floor, so he got up and came over to Hannah. Before I could stop him, he reached up and started patting her cheeks. I told him he could only touch Hannah after he washed his hands, so I finished with Hannah and helped him wash his hands. I turned back to Hannah and started putting her back in the carrier, but when I turned around again I found Adam lifting the toilet seat with both hands. That ticked me off a bit. I washed his hands again (with Hannah hanging in front of me) and reminded him again not to touch anything. I straightened back up and felt something warm oozing down between my toes (I had flip flops on). I looked down and saw that Hannah had spit up all down my left side and all over herself. Adam looked up at me and said, "Hannah spit up, Mommy." I started cleaning this new mess up and glanced up to find my sweet little dude rummaging through the garbage can. I washed his hands yet again and declared that we were leaving. Now. I didn't even finish cleaning the spit up between my toes. As I squelched past the associate she called cheerfully, "Have a wonderful day!" I wondered if that would happen. We went next door to Carter's to return some other things, and I got Hannah some jammies. I spent more than I intended because I just grabbed some things and left without taking time to choose between them. I just wanted to get home.

All the way home Adam asked me to either fix his crayons or give him some Goldfish crackers. It's a good thing he says "please" now, or I would've gone nuts. When we got home, I made him some lunch and sat down to nurse Hannah again. They finished eating about the same time, so I changed both their diapers, put Adam down for his nap, and laid down with Hannah for a minute. I hadn't realized how tired I was until that point. I dozed off for a few minutes but awoke suddenly to a very strange sensation: Hannah was trying to suck on the tip of my nose.

Yeah, this is the life :)...