Mommy Moments...The Good and The Bad

The Good:

Nicholas has been expressing interest in the potty for the last couple of weeks. I usually will ask him if he needs to go, and he'll go. Today he's finally coming to me to let me know that he either needs to go or just went. I know it will probably be another few months before we're really into potty training, but I have started daydreaming about NOT having to change his diapers anymore. Sigh...

The Bad:

Nicholas is well into the "Terrible Twos," complete with all sorts of temper tantrums. Today I went to Once Upon a Child (second-hand children's clothing store) with him and Renae to get her some shirts and dresses. I put Nicholas in the children's play area while I went shopping with Renae. After a few minutes of observing him from a distance, I was feeling pretty good about being able to leave him in the kiddie area. Then I turned around the corner and notice this very blond little head trying to pull all of the VHS tapes off a shelf. He had scaled the wall in the play area and started running around the store. So, I bought the things I had picked out for Renae and went to claim my little blondie. It only took Nicholas a split second to realize that we would be leaving all of these fantastic toys behind, and he immediately started throwing himself on the ground, screaming hysterically. Fortunately, another mother came to my rescue and helped me out of the store with my two kiddos. Sometime during the process of putting Nicholas in his car seat, I accidentally keyed him in the nose, which set him off screaming again. Fun for me. Fun for the boy whose nose was keyed.

The Downright Ugly:

After we got started driving down the road, I was still fuming over this tantrum, mumbling to myself something about, "this is why I hate taking them shopping with me..." Out of the corner of my eye, I see some sort of flying insect sail right past me. I'm not crazy about insects being where they shouldn't be, and my car is one place they shouldn't be. Then I notice something crawling on my lap: a spider. I really don't like spiders. Or freaky crickets, but I digress. I immediately yelled out, "Oh, crud!" (Okay, I actually said "crap".) Yelling this out scared both of my kids, who then started crying. I immediately pulled over into a church parking lot, slammed on the brakes, put the car in park, and jumped out of the van. I pulled off my sandal and started beating my seat trying to scare the little spider out of hiding. It worked. The spider jumped out of the van, but met with an unfortunate ending when my sandal finally hit it. I'm pretty sure I even loudly said, "that's for disrupting my family!" I'm not sure what I meant by that or why I said it, but I think the spider got the idea. Did I mention that this parking lot was just off a pretty busy road? I'm sure I looked like a lunatic.