30 September 2009

a boy and his mama

another sweet one from marisa.

yesterday i had one of those dreaded store experiences with noah. i was 'that' mom with 'that' screaming child. not only was he screaming (for no apparent reason) he was contorting his body around so that he could reach the items in the basket and then he would throw them on the floor with force and intention. so what do i do? i pacify him with some earth's best cookies. food generally works to calm the crazy kid. i pull out the lidded cup of cookies that i always keep on hand and start handing them to him. being the independent little thing he is, he wants to get them out of the cup himself, so while i'm holding the cup, i let him reach into the container to get his own cookie. in the meantime, i'm hurriedly looking through fabric and not paying as much attention to the amount and rate at which he is eating his snack. next thing i know, he is spitting out a mouthful of soggy, half eaten cookies, and clumps of them fall onto his shirt, and then onto the floor. i stop what i'm doing, dig for wet-wipes and napkins and clean him and the floor up as best as possible. first of course i put the lid back on the cookies and set them down. after the clean up, he begins his "get me out of here" screaming and arching of the back routine, and so i hand him the lidded cup of cookies. another lame attempt at pacifying him. he grabs it, and hurls it towards the floor. cookies, along with the bottom-of-the-box crumbs go flying. apparently, i did not secure the lid on well enough. i was so frustrated. i just didn't say anything to noah (what would that have done?). instead, i once again pull out the wipes and napkins, clean up as best as possible and head for the cut counter. a better mom probably would have just left the full buggy of goods, grabbed the child and left. but i have one and a half weeks left to my next festival, and Hancock Fabric is 25 minutes away from where we live. excuses, excuses, i know. i had to get the fabric! at the cut counter, several sweet people entertained noah while we waited, and he stayed relatively calm...sort of. he wanted to climb on the counter, eat a package of elastic and cry a bit, but at least there was no wailing and screaming. i was dying to get back to the jeep, make him a bottle and head home. i put him in his car seat and start digging for the goods to make his bottle, but i couldn't find the actual bottle. the formula i had, the bottle i didn't. i quickly remembered that the bottle was on the counter at home. great. i dump the formula in his sippy cup that was full of water, hand it to him, and hope for the best. i was finally on my way home. he fell asleep on the drive, and exhausted, i fell asleep too as soon as we got home. what a day!

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