Adventures in Mommy-ing

Well, today was pretty ho-hum. Not much going on. Ran some errands, Bethany had a swimming lesson (pics soon to come), afternoon naps, ran to the grocery store. Not very exciting. Ha!

So we go on a mission to CVS this morning to find some "safe" sunscreen. For more on that check out these links.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/07/01/sunscreen.study/index.html
http://www.cosmeticsdatabase.com/special/sunscreens2008/
(Since I'm relatively new to this blogging stuff I don't have everything figured out. I've tried making these links work, but I can't get them to. Any advice???)

I'm wearing Landry in the sling and Bethany is walking with me. We've just recently progressed to being able to walk with Mommy instead of be in the basket. Of course, only in small places for short periods of time. I digress. The first thing we come to as soon as we walk in the store is a large display of homemade-like cookies. "Mommy, are these cookies for me?" I assure her that they are for someone else, NOT for her. Tantrum ensues. I patiently look around at the people in the store, extend my hand and plead with her to get up and come with me. Someone must have been watching over me at that moment because a miracle happened. She said, "Okay," got up and came with me. WHAT??? Who are you and what have you done with my child? I thank her (possibly a little excessively, but hey, I'm in shock) and we go about finding sunscreen. We decide on Blue Lizard, well actually, Baby Lizard. That's all we need, so we go to the checkout. I'm thinking it should be illeagal to place ALL of the candy in the entire store at the eye level of a 2 year old at the checkout counter. Seriously, I understand it's "marketing," but do these people really want tantrums thrown in their stores? While I'm purchasing the sunscreen, Bethany is picking up (and thankfully replacing) every box of Tic-Tacs and saying, "Mommy, are these for me? Can I have some candy?" After saying, "No, they aren't for you, we have snacks for us at home," about 100 times, my transaction was complete and we were on our merry way.

Let me preface this by saying that never, not ONCE, has Bethany EVER sucked her thumb. I don't even think she got it in her mouth accidentally as a baby. Landry, however, does suck her thumb. Usually it's only when she's sleepy, but I'm so grateful that she has a self-soothing tool! Anyway, about halfway home from CVS it gets really quiet in the backseat. I check out the rear view mirror and see Landry craning her neck to watch Bethany. So I decide I should see what Bethany is doing. I look back and she's resting her head on the side of her carseat, eyes squeezed closed very tightly, sucking her thumb. What in the world? She opened her eyes and removed her thumb in about 5 seconds, but still! I'm still not sure what that was all about. I guess she was trying to be a baby.

So we get home, have a relatively non-eventful lunch while Landry naps and then it's off to swimming lessons. Of course, since the baby takes forever to fall asleep, I have to WAKE HER UP to go. The baby sleep training book that I'm reading, Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child, specifically states, "Never wake a sleeping baby. Ever." Well, whaddya gonna do when you have a 2 year old who desperately wants to go to her swimming lesson? You wake up the baby. Thankfully, she's such a sweet, happy baby that not one tear was shed.

I'm not so sure that Bethany will actually obey her swimming instructor. I mean, she doesn't obey me, so why should she obey someone else? So, I resort to bribery. She had a sucker from the day before (bribery again) that I'd wrapped up and hidden on the kitchen counter. I told her she could have it when we got home if she obeyed the teacher and did what she was supposed to in class. Besides getting out of the pool a few times, she really does well. She even tells me when she has to potty and gets out of the pool to do so. Well, when we get home she remembers about the sucker. I retrieve it from it's special hiding place, unwrap it, and notice some black specks on it. Dirt? Upon further inspection, I realize that there are about 15 dead ants on the sucker. Uh-oh. It's the end of the world. Literally. Bethany is beside herself sobbing. She cries, "I want my daddy to come home so I can show him!" Poor thing. She puts herself in time-out. I go offer a popsicle instead. Tears are dried up and she's happy again. Crisis partially averted.

While both girls are napping (very rare occasion) I decide to clean my oven. I made a large brisket on the 4th of July and the juice overflowed. A lot. It makes the kitchen really stink and makes it difficult to cook anything in the oven. So, I decide to use the self-clean feature that I've never used before. Remember, I'm not a good housekeeper by any means. I've never cleaned my oven. As soon as the oven gets hot, smoke starts coming out of the vents. I know this is just everything that was caked in the oven burning off. I turn on the fan that's on the microwave right above the oven. Doesn't do much. The house is starting to fill with smoke and I just KNOW that the smoke detectors are going to go off any second, waking up both children. And I can't have that. So I open all doors and windows, turn on all ceiling fans, and bring a large oscillating fan into the kitchen. I aim it to where all the smoke points out the front door. All the while, my eyes are burning so badly I'm crying and can hardly see. About an hour later, the oven stops smoking and the house is about 400 degrees. Whew, glad that's over with.

So the kids both wake up and I decide we have to go to Wal-mart to get groceries. I didn't think this through very well, because I had stuff I could have made for dinner, but the oven was locked and cleaning itself. Oops. So we load up the car to get something that doesn't have to be cooked in the oven. I notice dark clouds and very strong wind. A storm is blowing in. Maybe we can make it to walmart and back before rain. Sure we can. Once we get to walmart I can barely walk without getting blown away. I was looking around for funnel clouds thinking seriously I'd be hearing tornado sirens. But no. So I unload the kids into the grocery basket and sling. Meanwhile the contents of my car are being blown across the walmart parking lot. Hope I didn't have anything valuable in there. Likely, it was just a couple Shipley's cups and some straw wrappers.

Maybe if we really hurry we'll make it before it rains! We speed shop, stopping quickly to pick up a bag of Dum-Dums to replace the ant-eaten sucker and of course, for future bribery. We get everything except for strawberries. Nary a strawberry to be seen in walmart. Figures. So we checkout, I make sure my keys are at the top of the diaper bag and rush to the door only to see rain pouring almost horizontally across the parking lot. The lady walking in says it JUST started. Darnit! Almost made it. If only we hadn't had to search produce 14 times for strawberries. Or gone all the way to the back of the store for Dum-Dums. Whatever the case, we had missed our chance and now it was raining. Luckily, I had thought ahead and made sure the umbrella was in the diaper bag. I get it out, raise it and we leave the store. It doesn't protect all 3 of us very well, so I cover Landry with the tail of my sling and cover Bethany with the umbrella, while I'm trying to push the cart. I ask Bethany if she will please hold the umbrella. No. She thinks she needs to help cover Landry with the sling. She's grabbing the fabric and holding it against Landry's face. We go back and forth, "Please, Bethany, I need you to hold the umbrella." "No, I need to hold Landry's *swing*." Before long, who is holding the umbrella becomes a moot point. An umbrella doesn't do much good if it is inverted. Yes, the wind blew it the opposite direction and it inverted. Okay, so at least I have 2 hands to push the cart now. We get to the car, I open the bag and reach for my keys. Not there. I dig around. Nowhere to be found. I seriously can't remember a time it has taken me longer to find my keys. Maybe that's because I'm getting drenched and my 2 year old is having a MELTDOWN because she and her bag of Dum-Dums are getting wet. Finally, after half of the contents of the bag have been removed (and drenched) I find the keys! I get the wet kids and groceries in the car and go home. Through all of that, I have to say that my precious little infant never made a peep. She's so good-natured. Thank you Lord for a happy baby!!!

Pretty much from then on, the evening was pleasant. We'll see how tomorrow goes!