Hectic Morning and Blogging

This morning I took the kids to school since LaMonte had an early meeting. After dropping them off, I went to Target. To my dismay, the battery was dead in our van when we came out. Here we are stranded in front of Target in our Mercedes/Lexus hybrid.

Ok, so it's REALLY a '96 Ford Econoline with no hubcaps and the remnants of the works "First Baptist Church of Lancaster" on the other side. Close cousins. Luckily...or not so much...this is not the first time I've let the battery die. (Or the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th--I'll stop there.) So, I happened to know that the AutoZone down the road would come and bail us out without charging us. The man who came to help us was very kind and I committed to become a faithful AutoZone shopper, again. Then we were off to Aldi's where the adventures continued. It was Jacob's first time to go grocery shopping without being strapped into the cart. Big mistake!

He was determined to "help" get the groceries, meaning he kept throwing random things into the cart. ie. cereal, coffee biscuts, olives, salad dressing, etc. Here he is trying to throw in a mango while Kevin is screaming. I managed alright, putting everything back (or so I thought) and trying to distract him until he found the footballs. That's when things really started going downhill.

He was not about to part with it. "No! Mine!" he exclaimed as I gently tried to coax...to pry...to yank it from his determined little fingers. I was at a critical decision making moment. Do I just buy the dumb ball to avoid the drama? "Oh, no!" hollered the voices of every parenting instructor and author in my mind. "You will be positively reinforcing bad behavior!" "Oh yeah!" I countered...in my mind of course. "Guess what is going to happen when I manage to get this ball from him and the baby starts screaming again?!" In the end, it was my cheap side that won out and I got the ball away from him. The screams that followed could probably have shattered thin glass, or at least have made it quiver-a little. Surprisingly, what got me through it was thinking about writing this post on my blog when I got home. Somehow, having this blog made two potentially frustrating experiences seem much lighter.

Kevin and LaMonte. I am so lucky!