And that's why we had pizza for dinner...

Friday afternoon I did a brave thing. (I'm a wimp, I'll just say it now!) I hadn't taken both the boys to the grocery store for awhile. You see, they've gotten a little much for me. It's always hard to go out places when you have a newborn and a toddler and then when that newborn reaches the "I'm big enough to sit up in the cart stage" it's a whole new world. For several months the boys and I enjoyed getting out...it's wasn't so hard. Then Shep grew up. He got independent. Before, I just had one trying to climb out of the cart, or crying for something they wanted or running away in the parking lot...now I have two very busy boys, often running in opposite directions and it's just gotten hard to get out again. We always talk about proper behavior etc and the consequences for not obeying before we go out, but inevitably challenging situations always arise.

All that said, we headed to the store Friday afternoon. The boys are both excited about the race car cart and I'm just hoping there is one available. Sure enough, there are several available, but they are all in the way back behind many other carts. I decided to be an annoying costumer and asked an employee to help me. He had to pull several cars out before retrieving the much coveted yellow race car cart. I set Shep in before realizing that this particular cart had a missing steering wheel. Anyone with two kids, especially boys, will understand that one steering wheel and two little boys is not a good thing. Shep had already seized the wheel and Conner started crying. Shep lost interest after awhile and they switched places, so it worked out. They were pretty good in the store and waited excitedly to get their "buddy bucks" to play a little kid's game. We got over to the machine and tried to play, but it was out-of-order. Conner took it pretty well and only a few tears were shed before heading to the car.

Then I decided to be even braver and let them get a sno cone. It was a pretty afternoon and we hadn't gotten one in awhile. We sat down. Sky was blue, slight breeze...lovely. Then suddenly out of nowhere it started raining. I figured it was just a stray cloud and would pass, but it didn't. Soon it was pouring and we're scrambling to get into our car. Conner climbed in and promptly dumped his whole sno cone on the seat. We saved most of it. Shep made a complete mess with his and was soon covered in syrup. The rain finally stopped and we ran into the house. I hurried to get the groceries in and then stuck the boys in the tub. After starting the water I ran into the kitchen to put the milk and chicken away. Upon entering the bathroom I noticed Shep was standing weird. He just looked up at me and said "Poop". Boy, was it ever. I will spare all the lovely details, but I'll just say it had disintegrated in the tub and I think I spied a lot of kidney beans floating in the water...yuck. As I tried to clean up the mess, the boys unloaded all the groceries, but fortunately didn't break anything. (Last time Shep helped with groceries all the veggies ended up with Shep teeth marks.)

And that is why we had pizza for dinner. I'd like to say that is a highly unusal day, but it's not. That's basically my life...now you understand why I'm so tired=)

Lessons in Mommyhood

I was reminded again last week that kids learn things in their own time. Conner decided last Wednesday that he was ready to potty train. We'd been talking about it for quite a long time with little success. Conner is just one of those kids that it has to be his idea. I was stressed about potty training for a long time. I would see kids younger than Conner who were already potty-trained and feel somehow that I wasn't doing a good job as parent. All my worry and the pressure I was putting on myself was so silly! Potty training has been the easiest things ever. I just needed to wait until he was ready. I think I was forcing it because I wanted people to think well of me, which is completely the wrong reason for training him! I decided to back off from it for awhile and weigh my motives. It's amazing how God can use even something like potty-training to reveal sin in my heart!

Conner loves wearing underwear. He only wears a diaper at night. I NEVER thought he would be potty-trained in just a couple days! It just goes to show how once again I stressed and worried about something that ended up being no big deal.