Life

Today was a beautiful day. Up until about 4:30pm when a torrential rain storm hit. It was short lived, but so nasty. Unfortunately, I was at Wal-mart checking out right when it hit. The wind was so strong, and the rain was REALLY heavy. There was lightening, thunder and tornado sirens. Flower pots were flying off the tables outside the store. I joined the crowd hovering by the door waiting to see if it would let up. After about 5 minutes I decided waiting for the rain to lighten up with a two year old and a baby was not likely to be a positive situation. Kids are not particularly patient and Makenzie was already fussy. So I thought I'd brave the storm and head to my car. I was parked close anyway. 5 seconds out in the rain and Shane starts freaking out pointing back to the store entrance. I immediately think he dropped his most beloved miniature football. So I rush back inside. Just those 5 seconds outside and we were already half-way drenched. Shane did not loose his football; it was safely tucked away next to Makenzie's leg in her carseat. In fact he hadn't lost anything. He freaked out because he desperately wanted to return to the warm, dry store. I don't blame him but I wasn't about to sit in the store for 30 minutes waiting. Fortunately, a kind soul came up to me and offered to watch the kids so I could run to get the car and pull up to the front of the store. Normally leaving Shane with a stranger and quickly running out would leave Shane in a flood of tears. However, he didn't seem to get too upset this time. Why? Probably because he knew where I was going and certainly didn't want to join me. By the time I got the kids and groceries in the car I was so wet I looked like I had been running through sprinklers. The weather scared Makenzie pretty good. She cried most of the way home. After holding her for a short while and putting her in her bouncer at home, she was perfectly fine.



A few weeks ago, the kids and I ran a little errand after dinner. We were going to buy a filing cabinet from someone advertising on Craigslist. I put the cabinet in the car and Shane refused to get in the car. He proceeded to pick up sticks and rocks, throw them and run around. I figured it would do him some good if we went to a near by park to let him run around and get some energy out. So using my handy, dandy GPS I located a nearby park. It was a really cool park that I had never been to before. It reminded me of a park I used to go to as a kid while visiting my Grandparents in Medford, OR. The picture to the right is an example of what the park was like. So we start walking towards the park and there is a cute little girls soccer team busy practicing. Shane sees the balls and yells "Ball!" and starts running for one. I stop him and explain to him that they are not our balls and we can't play with them. So we continue on to the the playground with Shane of course looking back at the balls longingly. After a while of playing, Makenzie gets hungry and needs to nurse. I didn't have our double stroller with me so I couldn't strap Shane in and let him wail like I have done before. So I try to convince Shane he needs to take a break and sit with me while I nurse Makenzie. What was I thinking?! Convince a two year old to sit for 10 minutes?! Obviously it didn't work. So I proceed to nurse Makenzie while attempting to keep an eye on Shane. As you can imagine from looking at the above picture, keeping track of a small child at this park was difficult. For a while Shane was a little intimidated by the playground and stuck relatively close by. I look down at Makenzie, look back up and of course Shane is gone. I think oh he'll pop back up with his lime green shirt any second now. A minute passes and I still don't see a lime green shirt. Suddenly I remember the soccer team and I panic. So I stand up with baby still attached and rush out of the playgroup towards the grass. I see Shane standing near all the little girls, looking up at the coach as he slowly sort of shirks away. I see the coach, ball in hand (obviously retrieved from Shane's hands), motioning to Shane and telling him to basically go away (I couldn't hear what he actually said). So as I stand there on the sidewalk with baby still attached, I yell Shane's name. I finally get his attention (and everyone else's attention) and tell him to come over to the playground. The coach recognizes that I am his mom. I yell to him "Sorry" and he yells back something like "that's ok I was just wondering who he belonged to," all while standing there nursing. Of course I have a cover over me, but I imagine it was obvious to at least most of the people there what was going on underneath. I was pretty much horrified when I realized what had transpired. When we got home and I told Adam the story it was just funny. Lessons? 1. Never take both kids to the park without double stroller. 2. If little dude runs off while nursing little dudette, DETACH immediately before chasing after little dude.



To be continued...