Today has been quite a day! It has been one that highlights the glorious ups and the really low downs of the parental experience. It started off with a bang at of all places...Walmart! I am in the process of evicting the tons of junk that has accumulated in our basement over the last 9 years and needed a few of those big plastic totes to keep all of said junk we want to keep. Talk about a trip down memory lane! That is a story all on it's own that I might decide to write about later. Anyways we were not even in the door yet when the crazy started. She didn't want to sit in the cart. She is a big girl now you know and very independent and wants to walk, not ride in the cart. One thing I know is that letting a 2 year old loose in Walmart is just dumb unless you want to chase said 2 year old up and down every aisle. After unsuccessfully wrestling her into the seat and going against the advice on that handy chart on the seat of the cart, I put her in the back of the cart instead. It was a mutual compromise. I should also mention before going any further that Walmart is Lilah's favorite place to go. She loves her some Walmart and asks if we can go to Walmart several times a day. Don't ever mention in front of her that we need something because she will promptly tell you that you need to go to Walmart to get it. So I find the totes, pick the kind I want and realize that they must go in the cart where she is sitting. Shit. So we wrestle. I get her in, click the strap on over her and push the cart to the checkout with her screaming at the top of her lungs and writhing in the seat. Now it is about 8:45 am and usually a very slow time at Walmart but it just so happens to be race weekend at the Kansas Speedway which is 2 minutes from Walmart and it was full of Nascar Nation. People with their colorful jackets sporting their favorite driver's sponsor logos pushing their carts full of Busch beer and beef jerky. We were quite the specticle. I kept my poker face on and stood in line and tried not to look anyone in the eye. If I saw a disapproving eye there might have been bloodshed. She breaks loose of the strap and now I am holding her down with one hand and pushing the cart out of the door with another. We get to the car and then begins the wrestling match into her carseat. If I was not already shot of nerves and ready to have a breakdown I might have been smart enough to try to diffuse her before getting her in the seat. It can be done easily sometimes with talk of say getting a juice box when we get home or watching her favorite movie or something along those lines. 2 year olds are not complicated beings. But I am not smart in that moment and spend the next what felt like at least 10 minutes trying to strap her in the damn carseat. So many people walking by stopped. I like to think they were just trying to verify I wasn't trying to kidnap her. I think the look on my face was enough to keep walking. I finally lost my mind, let go of her and started sobbing in her lap. Yes, big bad momma was done, defeated. I couldn't do it another damn second. Then she stopped. She sat up straight, stopped screaming and crying and let me strap her in. She did cry all the way home as did I. When we got home I got her out and she clung to me and stroked my hair and said, "love momma". I didn't forget about all the crazy but I did get over it at that moment. You see there are moments of parenting that will suck the life right out of you but then there are those moments that melt you and give you the most glorious feelings of love you have ever known.
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| Miss Sassafrass |
