Sunday, January 2, 2011

A Trip to the Mall

I love three day weekends. They are awesome. The first two days of my weekend, I did approximately 65,000 loads of laundry, vacuumed my house, went to Target and ran a couple of other errands, and stayed up until midnight on New Years' Eve. Which shocked me that I made it that far. (I think a fantastic meal helped.) (Mom...I ate SPINACH! And LIKED it!)

Today, my girls decided that they were really tired and slept in. Like, Sam got up at 11:30...and only then because she heard me in the shower. After a while of wandering around the house and picking up after her, I decided that sucked and we should get out. Ever since I pulled her from daycare, I have mommy guilt for because she doesn't get to play with other kids very much. So I thought, "Hey, we could go to the mall! They have a play area there! And it's free!"

I should've known how this trip was going to go when I couldn't get Sam to put on her shoes or socks, or pants. (She has a thing against pants, it is a rare day that she has them on the whole time. Shoes and socks too, for that matter.) So that was tantrum #1. After being put on the step a couple of times for time out, she relented and got excited about seeing "the kids." Poor Charlie, meanwhile, was patient for a time in her car seat, but then she got a little annoyed and started yelling at me. So goes life. Fortunately, movement settles her, and she was fine once we headed to the car.

Life was uneventful during the car ride until I heard from the back seat, "Mom, Charlie fell." Umm....OK.


We made it to the mall and Sam decided that she wanted to sit in the back of the double stroller. Which would be fine except 1) Charlie is too little for the front, especially considering by this point she was asleep, and 2) I had NO intentions of waking her. So that was a good 5 minute tantrum (#2), which I am convinced ended only because she got cold.

Once in the mall, Sam was good...lots to see, lots to take in. We don't venture out like that too often, and she was happy just checking everyone out. (Of course mom can't just wander around the mall without buying anything, I found little Pillow Pets, and just had to buy one of each. I am hoping one can replace my little pillow, or serve as an appropriate substitute.) So I decide to attempt the play area.

I guess everyone else in the free world had the same idea that I did, because there were a TON of kids there. Not so many that Sam was being knocked down, but enough for her to stand back and think, "Wait a minute, I'm not so sure about all this." Somewhere along the way, she picked up my purse (another one of her fetishes) and began her rummaging process. It took about 3 seconds for her to find "medicine"...aka gum. When I told her that under no circumstances (my exact words) could she gave any of that delicious gum (hey, it was Trident layers, have you had the strawberry one?) tantrum #3 started. The security guard actually asked me if she had gotten hurt, and was glad that I was just denying her the yummy "medicine". Good thing she wasn't hurt, as I was just watching her flail and scream instead of trying to comfort her.

After that one ended, we headed towards the exit. I thought maybe I'd swing into Children's Place just for the heck of it. She was so cute, I tried to get video of her "shopping", my purse slung over her shoulder, browsing through the racks of clothes at her level. I wonder if she was really looking, or going through the motions as she sees me do? And if she really was looking, what would she do if she saw something she liked? Would that be tantrum #4?

As it turned out, tantrum #4 started when she got into my purse again and wanted gum. Again I said no, and she really put her heart into this one. I was THAT MOM with THAT KID who was screaming and trying to throw herself out of my arms as I pushed the stroller with one hand and tried not to drop her with the other. I would've put her back in the stroller, but before I could get her strapped in, she slid right out and down onto the floor. I know the passer-bys were impressed with her speed. And luckily for me, Charlie slept though the whole thing.


Yes, I realize that the whole incident could have been avoided had I just taken the damn gum out of my purse. Or not let her have the purse (wait, no, that would have just started the tantrum sooner). I managed to get her to calm down by implementing a little dog whisperer trick...make her walk. Force her to walk, and focus on holding my hand, holding the purse, and keep up. We made it home with little to no more incidents, save for another, "Mom, Charlie fell!" This has GOT to get easier.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

You are a brave, brave woman. I'm not fond of shopping with just one at any time.

And my bucket seat used to do that too! We had some doodad threaded through the seat wrong. You'd think if they're that important they'd make them easy to install.

me said...

Is it bad that I love this post? It makes me feel normal!!

Pamela Gold said...

Sometimes "getting out" is not a good plan!