Sounds ridiculous, I know, but today was the first day without my husband that I ventured out for errands with all five of the kids. On. my. own!
Since the new addition a month ago, I have been dreading this day. It wasn’t all that bad, but it was something to write about. (hence this post)
We started out getting everyone breakfast and then dressed, hair fixed, shoes on, buckled in and ready to go by 10am. First stop was the post office which is really not worth mentioning because luckily, Darryl was able to meet us there and sit with the kids while I waited on the long line for a handful of stamps. We went our separate ways. Him to drive to south Jersey and us to the library.
While the girls poked around and pulled books of the shelves, I sat and stamped our birth announcements. We are relatively behaved and quiet. I didn’t feel stressed at all walking out of there as I have in the past for fear of disturbing patrons and clerks and librarians. I was confident walking out that no one looked at me with THOSE eyes of a tumultuous mother of a million kids running rampant in public. Library: success!
Next we attempted to go to a local park but everything was wet. We walked through and saw the dampness and walked right back out. Park: circumstantial un-success.
I stopped for a quick visit to our car’s service center to get pricing on maintenance I know we are due for but with a family of our magnitude it takes planning to set up and coordinate alternate transport and timely service in the garage. That stop was a great success thanks to auto start. The cherubs relaxed in the car watching Pippi Longstocking in the a/c.
After a quick feeding and diaper change we went on to the grocery store. This is the toughest of the tasks for the day. Most mom’s won’t take one baby to the store let alone two. Me? I take all FIVE!
Just getting them in the store is a chore, what? with unbuckling everyone, strapping on the infant, letting the 5, 3, and almost 2-year-old use the potty. Getting the shopping cart and remembering my purse, coupons, diaper bag and shopping bags(we use our own reusable bags for the earth and for our pocket, I get 5 cents off per bag) Now in the store, we work on produce first which is the easy part because they’re just in the store and not really bored, hungry, tired or too fidgety, yet.
I move fast! As fast as my 3 year old’s feet can keep up, that is. I think we were in the store no more than 20 minutes with the lengthiest stay being at the check out.
We’ve trained them well to only ask for things we normally purchase and nobody wanders off without one of their sisters noticing and calling out their name in a panic. (heaven forbid we should leave someone in the frozen food aisle) Everyone wants to help load the belt at the check-out and the cashier knows us well and chit chats to make the experience a bit more fun for them. We make it out of the store under budget, we make it home in time for lunch and the 2 and 3-year-old girls have a splended 1 hour and 30 minute nap. A much-needed rest time for mom where I feed the baby and help lemon with her workbook while Juniper is off in the distance playing her sweet sounding violin…AAAAHHH I survived!
Barely! That was the short version. The edited version. The version without the trip to the second park where on the way people were fighting and mom was yelling subsequently leading to us leave that park wtihout playing. That was the version where I fed my 2-year-old potato chips the entire way home to keep her from falling asleep. The version without the part where my nipple leaked and I used my baby wrap to cover the wet spot on my shirt. The version where the librarian made me log into the computer database fill out forms for my name address and credit card to pay a $5.60 fine for overdue books and the kids had to just stand there for 10 minutes with me bribing them with the park for good behavior, yep the park that was all wet and we didn’t get to play at. The version where the 2-year-old kept saying potty and I had her on the pot 3 times with no action. The part where my frustration crept up on me a few too many times. The version of the day that made me dread this day to begin with but
It’s a beautiful life; beautifully stressful, but…
I SURVIVED A DAY WITH MY KIDS (and so did they)
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