Tuesday, May 16, 2006

Tomorrow is Another Day

There are some days I love being a mommy and there are some days I don't. Today was a don't day. On one hand, everyone survived, there were no phone calls to Dr Stroman, and no need for pastoral counsel. So in that regard it was a good day. But by the end of the day, my mantra was "I do not need a martini to make it through the day." (Thanks to my friend Kary for that one!)

The day started out well enough~Amelia and Greta slept long enough for me to shower, dress, do my hair AND put on some make-up. I was ready to go the prom! Drove carpool, came home, fed the little girls breakfast, picked up a bit, yadda yadda yadda, looking forward to a little Oprah. Then phone started to ring. In my world, a ringing phone is never a good thing. (Unless it is during the universal naptime when one of my Girlfriends will call to chat!) Tim called to tell me he would be working much later than expected. Not a huge deal EXCEPT I had planned to go grocery shopping when he was home. So I begin to round up the girls for a trip to Costco and Meijer. Phone rings again. This time it is our builder. She needs to know what colors we want each room painted. OK, no problem. When does she need this info? Today. Spectacular. So I load 'em up and we head out. How bad can a trip to the paint store, Costco, and Meijer be with a 1 year old and a 2 year old?

First stop paint store. OK, my first gripe is that the lighting in these places sucks. How can a girl decide between "Witty Green" and "Laudable Lime" when it is almost dark? Secondly, why does everyone look at you like you are a circus freak when you enter a store with 2 small children? I am sorry but I will not live in a box. So we grab out 50 paint chips are we're on our way.

Next stop, Costco. My girls love it because generally there is food to taste and lots to look at. Well, not so on Tuesday. First of all, Tuesday is Senior Day. In my experience, seniors either adore small children and come pinch their cheeks or complain loudly about how in their day children were not taken in public. Seniors also~forgive my "age-ism" here~but are VERY SLOW. When shopping with 2 toddlers, fast is key. Also it seems that the tasting tables were all for grown-ups. Amelia was not happy that her only options were smoked salmon, chipolte salsa, and almond-crusted scrod. Finally, this last fun part was trying to convince a 2yr old the the swing set that is set up for display is not to be played on. Calgon take me away.

After this fun trip, we hit a drive-thru and headed home. Of course, Greta fell asleep. Hard. (JD will feel my pain here) Amelia was asking for "night night" and her pacifier (I weally cwyin Mommy!) but Miss G would have none of it. We played "in and out bed" for 90 minutes they both finally crashed.

Enter Caroline. 20 full minutes after the little girls fell asleep, Big Sis storms in and YELLS "MOM! CAN I PLAY OUTSIDE?!?" Ugh. Awake little girls. So I pile 'em in the minivan and we're off to grocery shop. Starts out well. The store has the little carts for the kids so they thought that was great. Until Amelia started mowing people over while yellling "Move out of way!!" Greta turns around in the cart and flings whatever I have on the floor. Including a cup of yogurt that burst. After 2 hours in hell, we get home. I unload the van and proceed to have the bottom rip out of a 12 pack of MGD bottles. It was not pretty. I seriously considered laying on the floor of the garage and lapping it up.

Now they are all asleep, I have a nice glass of Barefoot Chardonnay, and as Scarlet said, "Tomorrow is another day."

6 comments:

kkoois said...

sounds like you had a crazy day. you should have lapped up the beer - it would have been the smart thing to do!

i am not said...

Good post - had me laughing and nodding my head in agreement. Been there. Have felt your pain:) How about these people giving you dirty looks for shopping with two small children. Someday I just want to look one of them in the eye and say, "Do you think that I'm not stressed enough as it is with these two? Do you think I NEED you to make me feel like I'm destroying your afternoon, too? Sit on it!" (my ode to the fonze).

I agree with kim - lapping up the beer would have been my choice, too, and I don't even like beer. That would have been comical - "no, no, not right now honey, mommy is licking up the beer off of the garage floor. I'll be with you in a minute."

Some days I understand why valium used to be "mother's little helper":)

Josh Leo said...

This is a great post, a nice tour through your day...I hope Tim comforted you when he got home... I am not sure what will be worse, when you have to dela with Caroline's boyfriends/teen drama, Amelia's math homework and Greta's science priject all in one night or days like this one!

Jen said...

I did not know about the beer!!!!!!

Jen said...

I did not know about the beer!!!!!!

Jen said...

I did not know about the beer!!!!! Tim