Now that we can laugh about it…
I mentioned I was wound a little tight by the weekend.
It all started on Thursday. It was a cold, rainy, ugly day. I got out of bed and started the long process of getting everyone ready to leave the house. I got Tessa bathed and dressed and changed and fed. I changed, dressed, and fed Sabrina. I settled Tessa into her crib and Sabrina in the bathroom with me so that I could take a quick shower and get dressed. I had bottles and sippy cups and snacks and extra diapers. I was ready to head out for my almost hour drive. I looked at the bulletin board to verify the time of Tessa’s pediatrician appointment. I was correct – 11am. However, it was for 11am Monday 3/16. Oh eff.
You ever have one of those days where it feels like every dirty diaper you change and every spot of puke you clean off yourself sucks out a little piece of your soul? I was having one of those.
Later that afternoon, I needed to pick up a prescription. (Remember the cold, rainy, ugly part from above.) I went through the Walgreens drive thru (bless these people for not making me cart 2 small kiddos inside). Sabrina assumes any drive thru, including the bank and pharmacy, means french fries. (I swear we might get fast food 8 times a year. But it is like crack to a 2 year old – they are always looking for their next hit.) So she starts with a cute “Please fries” from the back seat. It stops being cute quickly because it is on a continuous loop with ever increasing volume. I tell her I don’t have any fries and she begins screeching, sure that I am bogarting the fries. I show her the bag to assure her that I’m not holding out on her. The volume lowers but the pathetic pleas for fries do not stop.
Since we are out, I think we might as well stop at the grocery store. We recently ditched Tessa’s infant car seat and installed a full sized seat. This was my first trip to the store with both kiddos and no carrier. In the cold, windy rain, I run with both kiddos to the store to search for an elusive double cart. I find one but see that unlike Target’s double carts, these do not have 5 point harness belts. I nervously put Tessa in the cart with just the lapbelt. She is fine for awhile but then starts gyrating around and bouncing her head off the plastic seat at regular intervals and sobbing each time. I try to carry her and steer with one hand but those double carts are impossible with steer w/2 hands let alone just one. So, I fly through the last 3 aisles and check out. I refuse help out to the car (why, why, why? enough with the pride!). I sprint with the unweildy cart to the car. Both kids are cyring because it is cold and raining. I get Tessa strapped in and then Sabrina strapped in. I have rain dripping off my nose at this point. I throw the groceries in the back. I take the cart to the cart return. I hurry to get into the car and smack my head into the door frame hard enough to see stars. I sit hunched over my steering wheel weeping for 5 minutes before I can muster the will to drive home.
The next day, I plan to go meet Steve for lunch. I get the girls and myself ready with all of the assorted items that entails. We manage to only be 10 minutes late due to Tessa pooping with enough force to require a wardrobe change in addition to a diaper change just as we are leaving the house. We pick Steve up and head to a Japanese place. I’ve been anticipating a bento box lunch all week. We arrived well before noon but still found the restaurant quite crowded. We get seated with our booster seat and our high chair. Tessa is initially quite happy to be free of her carrier and look around. That lasts 3.5 minutes. Then she starts fussing. I’m trying to hold a squirming infant and eat with chopsticks and Steve is trying to convince Sabrina that eating the miso soup that came with her veggie fried rice isn’t something “Nina can do for self”. Sabrina is on the edge due to the soup and Tessa is on the edge for who knows what reason. We managed to get through lunch with having An Incident but just barely.
I then declared that it has officially become more trouble than it is worth to leave the house with the kids. No need to tell me to buck up and that it will get better – I don’t tend to tell these kinds of stories until I find them funny. Yesterday we had to do the pediatrician and went to Trader Joe’s after with no problems what so ever.