What a day!

Last night, after the last daycare child went home, Paige and I headed out to run some errands. She loves to go "sopping" with mommy. We grab the shoes and are ready to go. Or so I think. She decides that she needs a hat. It's her new thing. So, even though she has about 15 hats, it takes us another 10 minutes to locate one of the elusive things. I swear they evaporate like water. So, she's dressed in a lime green outfit with citrus fruit on it, hot pink suede shoes, and a yellow hat with purple flowers. Just another day in the life of a two year old. So, we get out to the car, and I start to buckle her in. She throws the hat on the floor and yells, "No hat mommy!" Why couldn't she decide on that 15 minutes ago?

Off to Once Upon a Child, to sell what clothes are not stained beyond recognition. Gotta get money for more shoes and hats! So, we deal with a clerk that is either having a really bad day, or has no business working in a store that caters to children and their stressed out parents. How unreasonable is it to want to be greated with a smile?!?!

For the quick drop off, I didn't think a stroller would be necessary. Well, this store had a cute little Barbie Jeep sitting there, enticing the little girls. Paige hops in, grabs the steering wheel, and hits the accelerator. A chant of "go, Go, GO!" rings through the store. So after dealing with Ms. Crabby, I try to remove my daughter from the car. One would not think a two-year-old could be so strong. How can they go from superhuman strength to wet noodle limp in less than a second? There must be some makeup to their muscles that enables this, disappearing when we hit puberty. How many of us wish we could relax like that on command? me, Me, ME! So, at this point, my daughter is sitting in the passenger side of the Barbie Jeep, talking on the phone (how is this a good thing to teach our children?), and steering with her left hand. When I updated my hubby on this, he said she was all done riding with me. Glad he couldn't see the finger I held up. :0) We have to get going, so I pick up my little darling. For the effort, I have five new bruises, a bite mark, and some serious scratches. Barbie Jeep + unwilling two year old + more errands = feral cat. There's some math they never taught you at those parenting classes! Finally we get out of the store, and I realize there's a reason the clerk had that attitude. She's probably had it since the Jeep came into the store!

We run the rest of our errands, while the clerk is going through the clothes. Off to Office Depot to buy more paper for the daycare. Then Target where they tell me they won't take a return because the receipt expired a month ago. Who ever heard of only taking returns for three months? If I want to do Christmas shopping in July, I'm out of luck. Or the gift recipient is if they don't like it. So, they give me a 1-800 number to call for manufacturer warranty info. Yeah, like I can talk on the phone with a daycare! I swear the sound of the phone ringing is to kids what a can opener is to a cat. Whoosh, all at your feet and jabbering. I paid the cable bill yesterday over the phone, and had to give them the credit card number three times, because the kids kept yelling random numbers and confusing the agent. *Sigh*

We go back to Once Upon a Child, Paige strapped into a stroller this time. We wound up getting a whopping $12.50 for all that work. Hardly worth the effort, but the goodwill pile is still pretty big. Paige spots a little girl playing with the car, and yells, "No, MINE!" Sorry Kiddo, not for a couple years! I can hardly keep up with her now... she's not getting her own set of wheels! She looks at the girls mom, and says, "I need help! I stuck!" Yep, and you're staying stuck in that stroller until we reach the car!

Off to Walmart, where it was not worth the battle to make her sit in another shopping cart. She wandered the store with me, and I have to say for a two-year old she did pretty darn remarkable. Sure... index cards, some lemonade mix that she told me "i love it mommy", and a little wooden plaque made it home with us, but in the grand scheme of things whats an extra four dollars? After Walmart I strap her in the car so we can head home. We pull in the driveway and I look back at her. Her little eyes are tiny slits, and she says weakly, "No more sopping mommy! Boos Coos and Muk!" For anyone without a toddler, that would be a request for Blues Clues and a sippy of milk... our bedtime routine.

Four hours from start to finish. It felt like a lifetime!