Mall Madness

The girls and I are recovering from our week from the dark side. Morgan and Sophia are back to their happy little selves. Rachel is almost there. She is still pretty snot nosed, but her cough is much improved. As for me, I have a leftover cough but am otherwise getting better.

My poor mother came down with our flu today. I was SO hoping she wouldn't catch it. She was so helpful to us when we were all sick. I wish I didn't need her help, but I was useless for a couple of days and in no shape of taking care of three toddlers alone. My mom had planned to come over this morning so we could take the girls out for a walk to the park, but since she came down with our flu, she had to stay home and rest.

I already had the girls dressed when my mom called to say she wasn't coming. I still wanted to get out of the house so I decided to get myself ready too. We've been cooped up for far too long. Not really needing to buy anything specific, I decided to go walk around the mall. I could buy myself a coke and walk around to get a little exercise. The girls usually love to be out and about and the mall is one of the places they love to look around.

Not today!

The first 10 minutes walking around was great. The girls were happy and talking and just looking at everything. I went into JC Penny's to look for some t-shirts and work clothes for Bob. As soon as I stopped the stroller to find Bob's t-shirt size, all shmeckles broke loose! Sophia started to pull on Rachel's pony tail, Rachel started kicking Morgan's seat, and Morgan started trying to escape the front of the stroller. I reached into the diaper bag to grab some cheerios to calm the storm. Within seconds, I had three screaming miserable toddlers and a group of onlookers obviously pitying me. I could either freak out and leave or I could calmly try and soothe the girls (or bribe..) them with food. I handed each one a cheerio or two so I could buy myself a minute to grab some t-shirts. It's not like it is ever easy for me to leave the house so I was going to buy these shirts while I had the chance. I've decided to just get over the fact that people are going to stare. They stare whether the girls are happy or crying so I'm getting used it anyway!

So I grabbed 4 shirts and decided to go buy them. Forget looking at work shirts for now and just buy the t-shirts while I had the chance. So I took them up to the check out and there was an elderly man all pissed off at the clerk for some reason. I waited for about a minute and the girls started their meltdown again. Apparently, I'm not allowed to stop the stroller anymore! Ugh.

When the guy was done with his tantrum..... which was almost louder than my crying kiddos.... I tossed the shirts up on the counter, smiled, and said please go as fast as you can. LOL... I finally got out of the store to walk the mall again, but the girls were only happy for about 5 more minutes. It sucked. I really wanted to walk around for a bit, but they were having none of that!

I was, of course, on the other side of the mall from where I parked. Halfway back to where we came in, they all started the crying again! Rachel was having an all out meltdown screaming fit. I have no idea why other than maybe she was tired. I was walking as fast as I could and getting looks of pity and even some laughter as I'm walking out of the mall. Believe me, I was joining in on some of the laughter. I could have laughed or cried...... so I just laughed! What else was I gonna do?

I got back to the van and started loading the girls back in.

Three. Unhappy. Crying. Toddlers!

What's a mom to do? I started singing and dancing around like an idiot to make them happy again. It pretty much worked. When they were all strapped in, I looked around and there were at least 3 other moms with their kids or babies who were looking at me. Oh well. So I started loading my giant stroller back in the van. I had my keys in my pocket. Somehow, when I lifted the stroller, it pressed on the emergency button on the keypad thingy in my pocket. The alarm on the van started blaring. GREEEAAAATTT! Like I needed MORE attention brought to myself.

I was laughing my butt off at this point. I closed the hatch to the van and then hit the unlock button thinking that would stop the alarm.

Did it?

NOPE!

I didn't know how to stop it so I just kept hitting the unlock button. It wasn't working!

I left the giant stroller behind the van and jumped in the drivers seat to see if starting it up would stop the alarm. FINALLY... that worked!!!. Then I hopped out of the car and went back to load the stroller.....all the while... people were staring at me and watching my every move. When I got the stroller loaded, I wanted to curtsy and wave at everyone for my job well done! After all, I felt like I was putting on a pretty entertaining show!

I was so happy to be able to drive away from my audience! I headed straight to Sonic.... I needed a coke and it was well worth the 3 WW points to drink it!

Next time, I think I'll wear my Kate Gosselin wig I have since I dressed up as her for Halloween last year. I could push the stroller full of unhappy toddlers and yell... Jon, Jon, JONNNNN.... Where are you Jon?