Mommy Moments - May

I feel like I have had a ton of mommy moments lately. And I'm REALLY hoping I'm not the only one that has been locked out of the house before. At least it wasn't as bad as that episode on "Up All Night" where Christina Applegate's character has to crawl in through a window......thank goodness!

First of all, let me say that I was not truly locked out of our house! Here is the scene, I had started the grill out on our deck in the backyard. Our door has a quirky lock and even I have trouble with it sometimes. I had walked out to see if the charcoal was ready and shut the door behind me because I didn't want our daughter outside with me, it takes an army to get her back in. In her attempt to escape and come outside with me, she locked the door. I could not believe it. How did she possibly get this door locked?! After a minute of trying to get her to unlock it, I started to put on my husband's slippers that he had thankfully left outside so that I could go around the front to come in through the garage door. Just as I was telling her "Mommy is going around the front. I'll be right back!", my husband walked in the front door. All was safe and Little Man is not mobile yet, thank goodness, but lesson learned.

My other mommy moments take place at McAlister's, of course, our favorite place to eat lunch. It is always an adventure when going out to lunch with both kiddos alone. Some people may think this is torture, but for the most part, I really like it. Maybe it's because it is a chance to be out of the house or no mess to clean at home or possibly I just don't want to eat what we have at home, if we have anything at home.  Baby Girl is typically very well restaurant behaved, but we do have our moments. This day was a day of testing. As she is getting older, she does not tolerate the highchairs in restaurants as well. On this particular day, she was determined not to sit in the highchair. When I'm alone with both of them, this is just not an option. So I began negotiating with a two year old who was starting to slowly escalate. I would rather had not had an audience.  A nice lady at the next table just sat and watched. I don't think she was judging, maybe just curious to see how this was going to work out? Not sure, but at any rate, I gave my very assertive and independent daughter two options, she could sit in her chair or we could leave. I gave her two times to make the decision to sit in the chair, but it wasn't until I started to take the highchair and put it away when she gave in and said "Ok, I sit in chair". This would be an upside to a toddler who likes to eat out as much as I do. I was ready to have them pack up our food so we could leave. At two and a half years old, I was going to have to call her bluff. I'm just glad it worked so hopefully next time she remembers.

Possibly the same day or another day, can't remember at this point, we were walking across the parking lot to our car from the restaurant and she lost her shoe. For some reason this particular pair of sandals will not stay on her feet. Unfortunately, it wasn't until we got across the road (not really a road but a drive lane near a strip mall) that she yelled, "My shoe!!! My shoe!!!" So while carrying the car seat and half holding her, I ran back to get the shoe. I'm not really sure why, but it was just a really funny scenario. Maybe because a car was coming or the way she was so distraught over losing the shoe or the fact I didn't even realize it right away, but I just had to laugh.

And because we are obsessed with shoes at our house, lots of stories involve shoes. It rained a few days ago and we were out running errands. She had worn her rain boots because I knew it was going to rain and she LOVES those things. Today we put them to good use. Even though it was nap time and we were in a hurry, instead of rushing to the car and being sure not to step in the puddles we splashed and splashed all the way to the car. We stomped and made splashed in as many puddles as we could find. It was even sprinkling a little and Baby Girl thought it was the best thing ever!! She laughed and giggled and it was adorable. "Momma, this so much fun!!!"

Despite the craziness, lack of sleep and constant changes, there will always be days like getting locked out, but there will also always be days like giggling over splashing in puddles. I tend to be a little uptight and forget how to have fun. I don't want that for my kiddos. I want them to have fun and I want to have fun with them. Looking forward to the next mommy moment.......which will probably happen tomorrow. :)