Chaotic Kids

Yesterday May 22, my sis in law Joanne and I decided to head down to Bakersfield to do some errands. We braved having all 4 kids together w/o our husbands for the day, and it was crazy! (somewhat hilarious at the same time) Our first stop was to Target where we proceeded to load the girls into the carts. (She has 2 girls) So Ava (her oldest) doesn't want her Mom to push her she wants me to, so I have to push Avas cart. Alaina doesn't want in the cart at all, she wants to walk like her big brother. Well with trying to watch all these kids and trying to locate what we need, plus the crowds.... that just wasn't happening. So we put her in the back of Joannes cart. She proceeds to scream and cry all the way back to the baby section. Once we get back there the helpful big brother Emmitt lovingly tries to distract her by grabbing her a baby book to look at. Thank goodness it worked!

As we continue to walk through the store Emmitt wants to play commando and hide out in all the clothes racks when I'm not looking. Very frustrating when trying to find my items and console the girls. He scared me a couple of times there. After Target we went over to Rubios to get some lunch since we were all so starving. We were the "main attraction" of onlookers. People just sat there and watched the chaos unfold. As they make comments like, "Oh their so cute!" (ya.....right....you wanna take over from here? LOL) As soon as we get through the doors the kids discover a fish tank, then the volume starts to increase from their excitement, along with the banging on the glass. The whole restaurant turns to see if a pack of wild animals escaped from the zoo. :) While ordering our food Emmitt starts to demand how badly he has to pee! So Joanne takes him into the bathroom to relieve himself. Once I am done ordering I go find a table with the 3 girls, then Alaina informs me she needs to pee. Once Alaina says she needs to pee, you take her otherwise she pees her pants. The bathrooms look like they are the one person at a time kind so I tell Alaina to hold it till Joanne comes out. Joanne comes out a minute later and I start to head for the bathroom w/ Alaina and Ava (who says she needs to go too), at this point I already know Alaina has peed her pants a little. Good thing I went to Target befre hand and had bought her some new panties! As I am walking to the bathroom a woman goes walking into the bathroom ahead of me. Then I think, GREAT now what?? I've got these 2 lil ones that HAVE to pee now, so I do the only "logical" thing. I go in the mens stall...no men around and these girls gotta go....sooooo oh well. As soon as we get in I lock the main door behind me. The mens room has a urinal and a stall so the girls head into the stall and I put Alaina on the toilet, Ava goes wandering out towards the sink so I call her to come back in the stall. I lock the stall door behind us...and it's a good thing I did because little did I know Ava just unlocked the main door when she was wandering about!! So whats my luck?? A man comes into the bathroom!! Now I'm just trying to be quiet as a mouse and hide in the back of the stall so he won't see my pretty lil lady feet. LOL!! Of course the quiet part isn't at all possible because Alaina starts saying Mommy Look, and Avas saying Auntie Amy over and over. We were stuck waiting for this man to finish his business for what seemed like forever!! Once he finished I told the girls quick let's go, even though I really had to pee, I just wanted the heck out of there and I'd wait for the ladies bathroom. As we walk out the mens bathroom door, I just start laughing hysterically to myself at the situation. We go sit down at the table and the woman that was in the ladies bathroom comes out, so I get up to go. When I enter the ladies room what do I see------2 stalls!! It's not a single person bathroom!! After that I could not stop laughing at how I assumed that it was a one person bathroom. I ran out and told Joanne the story while we finished up our food.

Moral of this story: Don't ASSUME anything, check it out first for yourself.
(Oh my goodness.)

As if this were not enough, we then brave going to WinCo for some groceries. Load the kids in the carts the same way as before and yes Alaina starts throwing a fit again!! Best thing about a grocery store though, is that they have snacks! Right when all hope is lost for my sanity, a box of gummy bear fruit snacks appears to save the day. Open them up, dole them out, and it's magic!! Mouths are now occupied by the sweet and chewy goodness of fruit snacks. We finished up our shopping and headed home, not w/o being the life of the party at the grocery store too, what with Emmitt harrassing Alaina and the kids crying to get out of the cart after the fruit snacks were fully consumed. After such an exhausting day I can't say I see myself having 4 kids in the future that would be all my own. That's part of what made me laugh at the situation....they weren't ALL mine! ;) Here's hoping your days aren't as chaotic as this one was.