Give That Girl Some Claritin

It's been a trying morning.....errands to run + 3 kids who aren't particularly that interested in errands to be run + minor sleep deprived mother = NOT MUCH FUN!!

We had planned to only run 2 errands: the grocery store and Hobby Lobby. However, when I checked my e-mail this morning, there was one from my dear, sweet husband asking if I could pick up a baby gift for one of his co-workers. After a failed attempt to try and figure out how I could fit this into my already planned errands, I reluctantly decided to add a trip to Old Navy in the mix. (I didn't think the new parents-to-be would get as excited over, say, a cantaloupe from the grocery store, as they would a cute little cuddly outfit from my favorite kids' clothes store),

Errand running wasn't a complete fiasco, just mildly so. A complete fiasco might have been holding a screaming Tate in my arms as I one handedly tried to finagle the cart Drue is so desperately trying to scramble out of, all the while keeping an eye on Reese who likes to run ahead of us an aisle or two or just giving up altogether and leaving the store in mid-shop and leaving all desired items I came for there (BOTH scenarios of which have been survived by me previously).

Evidently, the listening fairy must have come in during the night to render Reese incapable of listening to ANYTHING her mother said to her the first time. That darn fairy. She seems to visit our house often. We actually have quite a few fairies of such who visit our house on a regular basis. (That didn't come out sounding right). For instance, from the time David and I were dating, if one of us wanted a refill on our drink and were too lazy to get it ourselves we would say, "I wish the Kool-aid fairy would come in here." Somehow, this always made the other person laugh and instead of berating each other for our laziness, we would get up and get a refill on the kool-aid for the other person.

The crazy hair fairy is VERY popular at our house. She also comes during the night and twists mine and the girls' hair into such crazy contortions, we get a kick out of seeing how crazy our hair looks in the morning. She turns the girls' angelic curls into a matted mass of puffiness, the likes of which I've never seen before.

So what does any of this have to do with Claritin I'm sure you're wondering....

After telling Reese time and time again in the stores to keep her hands to herself, quit pulling clothes off the wracks, don't come to a dead stop right in front of the stroller I'm pushing, stay where I can see you, no we're not getting our Halloween costumes today....AAAAHHHHH I'd had enough. I kept my cool though throughout the whole ordeal. My kids may push me closer and closer to the edge sometimes, but I'm no fool, I don't want to end up on the 6:00 news as the woman who swatted her innocent child's hand in the middle of Hobby Lobby because it kept coming dangerously close to knocking over the entire display of glass teacups. No sir. I quietly took away privelege after privelege until there was almost nothing fun left to take away from Reese.

By the time we headed home, she had lost the following privileges for the day: NO cookies, NO doing Sesame Street stories on the computer, NO wearing a dress or shorts, and she was teetering on the edge of having to take an actual nap, instead of her regular "rest time" on our bed while watching a movie in the afternoon.

We made it back to our house (I was just thankful it wasn't the Big House) and the girls sat down to eat their lunch. Part of their lunch was strawberry applesauce. Whomever came up with the brilliant idea of strawberry applesauce, never sat down with an almost 2 and 4 year old to eat it. Because, let me tell you, they would have quickly rethought their invention. I was half listening to the girls' conversation in the next room, while I was tending to Tate. My ears perked up, however, when I heard Reese's voice turn to a whisper and she instructed her sister, "Like this Drue....just wipe it on your shirt".

Well, I flew in there like a bat outta somewhere to find Reese's WHITE shirt covered in red applesauce, the kitchen table covered in red applesauce, and Reese's spoon covered in....nothing. It was completely clean...it hadn't once been dipped into her applesauce. She decided her fingers hadn't had enough of a workout touching everything in the stores, and they now needed to expend some energy feeding her!!!

I corrected them, in a rather loud voice, that a few of our close neighbors may have heard, that applesauce was not a finger food, nor were the shirts their father and I bought with our hard earned money napkins!!!! The last straw was when Reese smeared the rest of her pizza all over the table as well, then spilled her milk onto the floor. (My mother's intuition makes me 99.9% sure the milk spilling wasn't an accident because, after it happened, Reese's voice didn't have that element of true complete surprise that I've come to recognize when she really does accidentally knock something over).

Of course, it was because of that .1% that I didn't give her a spanking, I decided to take away her last privilege of the day. She was sentenced to take a good old fashioned nap without getting to watch a movie. I was almost at the end of my rope and explained to Reese how I was sad about the way she had been acting today and I really didn't want her to act this way when Grandma Judy came to stay with her tomorrow.

This was her explanation for her actions this morning....."Mommy...I think I know what the problem is. Maybe, I am just allergic to you. So, when you are here I act naughty, but when Grandma Judy comes tomorrow, I'll act sweet."

AAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!! I do love that ornery little towhead.......