Life in the Fast Lane

    With two small children already and one on the way, there are still a few things I’m trying to figure out how to do. Can anyone with children relate to this? My 19-month-old son presents “the challenge” if you will, while my 3 ½ year old daughter seems always ready to help. I still haven’t figured out how to keep the house clean, and have decided to wave the white flag and admit defeat in this area for now. Try as I may, my toddler son is at the glorious stage of dumping everything out all over the house, and it seems no tile, hardwood, or carpet is left untouched.

     Recently, I attempted to go into a few stores (World Market and Pier One) to shop for some decorative items for our home. I had just dropped off my daughter at preschool and thought with only one child, I could surely get this task complete! How wrong I was!

     Strollers and shopping carts truly are wonderful inventions for kids. I only see one fault with these contraptions – getting the kids to actually enjoy being strapped into them. My son is close enough to the ground in a stroller that he simply wants to get out of it, and screams and wriggles his body until he has managed victory. Or recently, when he sits in the front of the shopping cart facing me, he cries and reaches out toward me, grabbing my arm or shirt or purse or anything else, indicating his great distress at the thought of looking at Mom but not being held in my arms.

     I reluctantly gave in to these episodes and got him out of these devices, only for him to run throughout the entire store. I thought maybe he would just let me hold him while we walked the aisles of color, sparkle and glass to dream of what the house could look like. Ha!! I simply chased him up and down the aisles, making sure he didn’t grab any breakables along the way, while at the same time trying to grab glimpses of beautiful items and decide (in literally a split second) if any of them would work in our house.

     As you can imagine, I walked out of both stores empty handed of beautiful, glittery new décor items, and my arms full of one rambunctious toddler boy.