The other day I took the kids to Wal-Mart after a day at the Dinosaur Museum (which was, by the way crowded with wall-to-wall people, and all-in-all a disappointment, if you want my opinion). We just ran in for a few things. My niece Maddie was with me, she has been here all week helping me with the kids while I have been catching up on work (she is AWESOME, seriously a LIFESAVER!). We loaded the kids into the cart and headed in. Since we only had a few essentials to get, we decided to take a detour down the craft aisle to find a fun project for the girls to do during Mason's naptime. We were looking at flowers and McKinley was right next to me showing me some ribbon. A second later, she was gone. I looked up the next aisle, where an employee happened to be stocking the shelves. She saw me and asked if I was looking for a little girl in a pink dress. I said I was and she pointed me in McKinley's direction. I turned around and went one aisle the other way and there she was. I brought her back to the cart where Maddie and Mason were waiting and told her that she needed to stay by me. I explained that it scares me when I can't see her because I don't want to lose her. She said she understood, so we continued to look for flowers. A second later she was gone again! I looked down a couple of aisles in the direction she had gone before. No McKinley. I called her name as I went in the other direction. No McKinley. I happened accross the same employee who had seen her the first time. She asked if I had lost her
again. Yes,
again. Ugh. I was a little annoyed and kind of panicking at this point. She never wanders far. The employee helped me look up and down aisles one direction while I went the other direction. I started to really worry, but then I saw her coming my direction holding a man's hand. She let go and ran to me. I was a little concerned with how friendly she had seemed to a stranger. I knelt down in the aisle and explained to her again that I was worried and it scares me when she wanders away. I (nicely but firmly) lectured her about staying by Mommy and not talking to strangers. I asked her why she went so far. She told me that she saw her teacher and wanted to say 'hi'. Then I looked up and realized that the nice man who had brought her back to me was her Sunbeam teacher. Oooops, so it wasn't a stranger. I had been so distracted by losing her and so relieved to find her, I hadn't even noticed whose hand she was holding. I felt a little better that she hadn't been talking to strangers, although I was embarrassed that I for one had been caught losing my child at Wal-Mart, and second that I had lectured her in front of him about strangers without realizing he was standing there. I thanked him for bringing her to me, then told her to tell me when she wanted to go say 'hi' to someone. Well, that ordeal was over with, and that's enough for one Wal-Mart trip, right? Not quite. We made it to the check-out line where McKinley decided that she HAD to go potty right then. Luckily Maddie was there, and we were right by the restrooms, so Maddie took her to the potty. As they walked away I could hear the sound of water splashing. Oh no! McKinley! No, not McKinley. It was Mason! Either his diaper was full to capacity or he was sitting funny and had a gap, but he had peed and it had poured out of his diaper, all over his pants, and onto the floor. I was so embarrassed. On top of that, he was stinky. Yea. Maddie and McKinley returned and Maddie helped me unload the cart onto the checkout stand. I looked up to see McKinley picking up Skittles off of the floor. She didn't really just eat one. Or did she? I quickly popped her mouth open. No Skittles. Breath check. Yep, lemon Skittle. GROSS! I lectured her about eating things off of the floor (haven't we had this discussion a thousand times? Why does food on the floor still look appealing?). And, to top it all off, I had to change Mason on the tailgate of my car in the Wal-Mart parking lot. Since he didn't have extra clothes, he had to ride home in just a diaper. That's when I started to wonder, why is it always at Wal-Mart? Any other grocery store I can usually keep it together, but at Wal-Mart it all hits the fan and we fall apart.
I was almost too embarrassed to share this story, except that it was too real (and for us too normal) not to share. Hope you can relate, but maybe it's just me! Needless to say, I will be doing my Wal-Mart runs alone from now on.
My kids are seriously obsessed with each other! They are so funny, they can have hours of fun all by themselves, just the 2 of them. I love to peek in on their little pretend world when they let me (their world is only for fun toddlers, no boring grown-ups allowed :). Today they were outside playing on the slide in the backyard. I peeked out the back door and heard Kinley saying "Oh, I need to catch my baby" while holding her arms outstretched at the bottom of the slide. I assumed she was talking about an imaginary friend or a baby doll. 
I said "What's your baby's name?" She looked at me like I had just asked if the sky was blue and said "MOM! His NAME is MASON." (Duh, how could I not know his name?) I said "Oh, Mason's your baby?". "Yes Mom, Mason is MY baby and I am his Mommy. I am helping him on the slide." Then she stretched her arms out while Mason slid down, crashing into her and landing in a bear-hug. They gave each other hugs and kisses while giggling, then Mason ran around and climbed the slide to do it all over again. They thought this was sooo funny, and of course to me, only a spectator to their wonderful world of imaginary play, it really was. I love my babies!
