Day 13

Have you ever had one of those days when so many things went wrong, it became comical and less frustrating? You have to laugh it off because if not you might start crying and never stop? That was my day.

I thought it would be fun to go with my sister in law and our three kids down to Salt Lake to the outdoor mall. The weather is beautiful and I thought the kids would have fun getting out and walking around. After Caden got home from school we packed them all up and our first stop was lunch in Park City (no, not McDonalds). Lunch was the best part of our trip, no drama.

About half way down the canyon Caden starts freaking out in the back seat. We turn around and discover Baby "D" has puked EVERYWHERE, including a bit on Caden and his booster seat. If you know Caden, you know he doesn't handle this sort of stuff well at all. He starts crying hysterically and yells at Kristin, "D is not allowed in our car anymore"..."That smell is gross. I don't like that smell" (this was all said in between his dry heaving). We couldn't pull over anywhere in the canyon so we had to drive another ten minutes to the closest exit. Luckily, there was a Smiths there and I ran in for Clorox wipes, air freshener and something to change the baby into. After cleaning the car, the baby, the car seat and the booster seat we loaded the kids back up and continued to the mall.

At the mall I was busy unloading my stroller and Kristin was unloading the two younger ones. Caden, equipped with his light saber, was checking out a storm drain and decided he wanted to see if his saber would fit between the metal grates. It slipped from his hands and fell three feet below to a mess of who knows what. Tears and panic immediately set in, Caden was a mess. There was no way for me to reach it and I told him I would just have to get him a new one. That wasn't good enough. He didn't want a new one, he wanted his special one. Oddly enough, Kristin found a wire hanger in my car (which is not normally there) and was able to make some sort of hook and after several attempts retrieved the disgusting toy. Crisis averted.

We laughed as we entered the mall area and joked that nothing else could go wrong. Within minutes of starting to shop Abbie, who has been in my stroller somewhat contained by a net/mesh cover started freaking out. I have never seen the kind of tantrum she started to throw and I honestly don't know where it came from (other than not getting her full nap). She starts thrashing around inside the stroller and screaming at the top of her lungs. I wasn't about to let her out because what I do know is that once she is in one of those moods, there is no calming her down, it escalates. I try appeasing her a few times and make it worse. So we book it all the way back to the car, all the while she is practically hanging from the inside screen like a caged monkey, screaming to get out. You should have seen the looks I was getting from people. One guy in his car even stopped and pointed her out to his wife and then gave me a dirty look like I was abusive to my children by keeping her contained in a stroller. Needless to say, I was humiliated and exhausted.

We drove straight home. Abbie took a three hour nap. I made cookies.

I plan on eating a lot of those cookies tonight while sitting on my couch watching Greys Anatomy and Private Practice. Despite all the crappy things that happened today, I'm still in a pretty good mood. Who knew chocolate and trash television could save the day?


(Here's a picture of my stroller and the mesh screen. It's not abusive to contain her in this, right?)