For the most part my children are very well behaved and only minimally crazy, but there are those random times when I agree with my sis. Watching me deal with them would be enough to send any horny teenager running in the opposite direction from anything having to do with baby making. Yesterday was one of those days.
It was raining - it feels like it has been doing that forever - and so our plans for the water park were not going to work out. So, my friends and I decided to try the local indoor jump castle play place, Monkey Joe's. Well, apparently ever other mother in the Charleston area had the same idea and Monkey Joe's was extremely crowded. So crowded I started feeling like I needed to go curl up in the corner in the fetal position and starting rocking back and forth. Needless to say after an hour we were DONE and we gathered up the kiddos and decided to go grab a bite to eat. We headed over to McCallisters, happy to beat the lunch rush, and walked in the door. 3 adults, 3 six year olds, 1 three year old, 1 two year old, and a one year old. We made a bit of a ruckus on our way up to the counter.
And that's when things started to fall apart. Let's just say that ordering with that many kids (all trying to tickle/wrestle each other), combined with the world's slowest cashier was a little stressful. Liam was screaming for water, 1 year old Connor was screaming for food of any kind, and all 3 adults were thinking of screaming at the cashier for being slower than molasses!
We finally got everybody seated (after chasing off two men who were trying to have a quiet bite to eat) and our food arrived. At this point I just starting chuckling to myself and thinking how we should have our own camera crew following us around. We would make a very entertaining reality show. It was right after this thought ran through my head that I watched Liam climb down from his chair, crawl under the table, grab one of his crackers off the floor and triumphantly put it in his mouth. I glanced at my friend Lisa, who had witnessed him do it too, and she said, "Hey. I didn't see anything." And so I pretended like my kid had not just eaten food off the floor in public.
On the way out poor Connor tripped and fell right into one of the rod iron chairs. When he stood up you could see an actual indentation on his forehead in the shape of the chair leg. Needless to say, poor guy was wailing as we walked out the door. Brandy, Lisa and I were all feeling a little frazzled at this point, and you could tell we were all anxious to just get in our cars and drive home for nap time. By the way, I was so anxious that I apparently forgot about the whole buckling in your kid thing. As we were sitting at the light to turn onto the main road Noah yelled, "Liam! You can't sit there!" I turned around to see an empty car seat and Liam sitting in the middle seat like a grinning geek. Holy S#&t!
Things can get like that sometimes with kids. An outing can suddenly turn into a comedy of errors and you can find yourself thinking, How the heck do I handle this? The truth is, sometimes you don't handle it. Not well anyway. I was so frazzled by 12:30 yesterday that I forgot to strap my two year old into his car seat! So what is a mom supposed to do? Well, I'll tell you what I do. I rely on the support of my friends. It is refreshing to see other Mom's going through the same things you are - to see them getting stressed out in the same way that you do. And when your kid is eating food off the floor, instead of judging you for it, they laugh it off and remind you to pick your battles - He's just building up his immune system.
I am thankful for the women in my life who help me get through crazy days. And I am thankful for being able to get together at the end of it all and laugh about it. Oh, and for enjoying a drink together. After yesterday, this may be our new motto:
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