Crazy!

Before somebody reading this makes a dash for the social services, let me clarify, I am talking about myself and not the kids. Why else would I take BOTH of them shopping, try TWO new recipes and spend the evening running behind a toddler’s scooter, all in the same day ??

To understand it better let me take you to the beginning of the day, for it is as interesting as the finish.

Some days I wake up and feel energetic, you know that feeling of being able to conquer the world? Well, usually in my case it means passing the day hassle-free, scream-free, time out-free with the kids and a nice dinner to end it all. Yesterday felt like that day.  Unfortunately for me, that very day, Baby no.2 woke up feeling more energetic than me. So instead of the toothless smile and the “goo goo ga ga” that I get fresh out of bed, what I got to hear and see was screaming “ ba ba ba ba” and a wild stomping of tiny hands and legs. The message was clear. She was telling me “you heard me MOM, we are going out”.

I love going out. I can just wander around the whole day in libraries, malls, shopping places without a care in this world (yeah right, come out of la la land!). So baby no. 2 didn’t have much convincing to do. We bathed and we dressed and grabbed a quick bite to eat and off we went to pick up Baby no. 1 from school. As soon as I told her we were going to TARGET to buy her new shoes, she hopped into her car seat in the blink of an eye, normally a task that takes a minimum of 10 minutes and a couple of “final” warnings to the note of “I am leaving without you”.

And till the time we reached the store I almost believed my kids were “little Angels” as everybody calls them (can’t help but observe that those calling them Angels are usually people who are yet too young to have kids or visit us not very often).

If I start to describe my shopping expedition in detail, it will probably make your blood boil so I am going to sum it up as follows:

Items needed to be purchased – 1 / Actual purchases -13

Number of hours expected to be spent at the store – 40 minutes/ Actual time– 2 hours

Occasions on which I had the urge to tear my hair – Many/Actual action taken – None.

And yet, I wasn’t unhappy because we did get those shoes. There have been instances when we return with everything else but the thing we had gone to shop for. By the time we reached home, my slightly dampened spirits had been restored.

When I am in a good mood I like to eat and when I am in an even better mood, I like to cook. To come to the point, there is some advantage to taking the kids to a big store, they are dead tired by the time they are home and the result is a long nap, giving YOU some child-free time.

I ended up cooking a dessert first. We were supposed to have friends over the next day and the recipe for the dessert I had in mind said to cook a day or two in advance for best results. Now there was also this question of dinner. Just because you have been out most part of the day doesn’t make you any less hungry. One more recipe put to use. Though, afterwards I did wonder why I had to cook two new things, I could have stuck to some known food, would have been easier. I guess I was crazier than I thought I was or whatever..

All this and one would have thought we were done for the day. Not so much. Hubby calls while leaving from work to point out that the weather was nice (as if I didn’t know that already) why not take the kids out for a walk. Very sweetly I pointed out that I had more than my fair share of taking them out today and could he please do the needful? Of course when he came home and got the kids all excited about going for a walk and a ride on her scooter for baby no. 1, it was hard for me to stay back home alone.

Like I said some of the days I feel like I can conquer the world. Trying to catch up with Baby no. 1 who scurried away on her scooter, while Baby no.2 squealed in delight, I thought, this comes pretty close.

And why the big deal about a walk around the neighborhood? Because, even simple things in life cannot be taken for granted.