Donut Drama

Summertime.  No preschool.  It's the time of year when I get to take three young children grocery shopping on a regular basis.

I'm pretty sure most moms would agree that grocery shopping with young children is rather stressful. Most of the time my kids behave just fine, but even then I'm stressed because I feel like it's a ticking time bomb. If we are in the store too long, something negative is bound to happen. So I race through the store, hoping I actually grab everything on my list, plus everything I forgot to put on my list, before trouble hits.

My summertime strategy when I have a large grocery trip with three kids in tow is bribery with junk food.  (What? Don't your parenting books recommend that, too?) If all goes well, our last stop is the donut case to get three donuts.  One for Caleb, one for Hayden, and one for Avery and me to share.  I eat my 1/2 donut to celebrate my survival, not just my good behavior.

This week Caleb asked to carry the donut bag, rather than putting it in the cart.  When we got to the checkout Caleb and I both forgot about putting the donut bag on the conveyor belt. We got home, I saw the bag in Caleb's hand and said, "Uh-oh, Caleb, did we pay for those?"

Poor Caleb was extremely distraught. I tried to reassure him that it's ok that we made a mistake, those things happen, etc.  I said, "Next time we go to the store we can tell the cashier that we would like to pay for 3 donuts" and then I saw his face and quickly added, "Or we can go back to the store now and pay for them. What would you like to do?"  He wanted to hop right back in the car and go pay ASAP. 

I convinced Caleb to let me put away our groceries before returning to the store.  In the mean time I gave Hayden and Avery their donuts to keep them occupied while I put away the food.  Caleb was quite concerned about that so I assured him that the people at the grocery store don't care when you eat the food, they just care that you pay for the food you take.  Not good enough for Caleb.  He kept his donut in the bag, even though he was probably hungry seeing as it was snack time.

Next I loaded up the gang into the car and we headed right back to the store.  Caleb was too ashamed to carry the bag, so he wanted me to hold it.  We paid our $1.77 for the donuts and left.  Then Caleb ate his donut in the car with a clean conscience.  He was still disturbed by the whole incident and said he was upset with himself for forgetting to put the bag on the belt. 

It was quite the morning! I was happy to see that Caleb was so committed to doing the right thing. But it was hard to see him beating himself up unnecessarily. Everybody makes mistakes, and in this case nobody got hurt and it was easy to make things right. And I'm sure it will be a loooooong time before we forget to pay for donuts again!
 

A Glimpse

Here is an update on life for each of the kids lately:

Caleb: still plays with his imaginary friend George Jeorge David Romney all the time. He is constantly asking to go out in the front yard so he can look at the cars that drive past our house or park near us.  He also looks forward to talking to Bob, our next door neighbor, whenever he's in the front yard.  Caleb is especially into Hondas, Chevys, and GMCs currently.  He pays close attention to cars' headlights and tail lights-- so much that he can look at a Honda's or Toyota's headlights and know what type of tail lights it has.  Caleb is excited about starting kindergarten, but was sad to learn that his preschool friend Michael was assigned a different teacher. Caleb has an increased interest in spelling and reading. Yesterday I overheard him on the phone saying to Grandpa, "Yeah, I'm standing near a big box. And by 'big' I mean b-i-g. And by 'box' I mean b-o-x."

Hayden: After all of Caleb's pressure to have an imaginary friend, Hayden has decided that he has an imaginary friend named Hayden.  Hayden (the real one, that is) loves riding his two-wheeled bike to the park and around the neighborhood. He often talks about wanting to play ping-pong in Grandma and Grandpa's basement. He loves ping-pong! He also asks everyday to go to the park to play basketball. And he loves soccer and football and baseball. See the theme here? Bob, the aforementioned neighbor, has invited us to swim in his pool every weekend, and Hayden is making great progress with swimming.  The first time we went over Hayden just sat along the edge, but now he swims around by himself (with floaties) and even jumps in the pool letting his head go under the water.

Avery: has developed an interest in TV.  She's always asking to watch Nemo, "McQueen" (Cars movie), or "And Beyond" (Toy Story). Can you tell she's the third child? Caleb had never seen a real movie when he was her age, and Avery has seen these movies enough to ask for them by name.  Avery loves to rough house with Hayden, jumping and climbing on him.  She loves to hug and kiss both Hayden and Caleb. Avery also loves to color and read. I've started putting accessories in her hair more regularly. Initially she fought and cried as soon as I started touching her hair, but she is getting used to it slowly. My new strategy is to distract her by giving her a few chocolate chips in a cup and turning on the television while I do her hair.  Eventually I'll cut out the chocolate chips, and then later I hope to cut out the television.

Basketball Love

I finally started playing basketball again. It's been a loooooong time.  I've had some pretty valid reasons for NOT playing over the past several years, in spite of how much I enjoy the sport.  For one thing, we've moved around a lot.  This makes owning a basketball hoop an issue.  Most of the homes we've lived in for the past 5 years haven't been conducive to either a portable or mounted hoop. Second, I've been busy having and caring for babies for the past 6 years. Third, I've had foot problems for the last 3 years, which made wearing anything but sandals quite painful.  Pretty compelling excuses if you ask me.

If I REALLY wanted to, I could have found ways to play, so I guess I didn't REALLY want to play. I just kind-of-wanted to play.  And let me be up front: for me, "play" means "shoot around by myself."  And I am quite content with that.  If I actually tried to play competitively, I would probably pull a muscle or sprain my ankle within minutes.  Eventually I hope to be in good enough shape that I could play competitively if I wanted, but I'm trying to be realistic here and start small.

Back to my story...
This week was particularly stressful for a few different reasons, and yesterday I got to the point where I sent Matt an email in the afternoon that said, "Just to let you know, I really need to get out this evening."  I rarely do this, and Matt knew it meant I was at the end of my rope.  Being the wonderful husband that he is, Matt actually left work EARLY to come home -even though I never expected it of him.  When he walked in the door he handed me his car keys and said (nicely), "See you later."  What a guy, what a treat! And in the nick of time. =)

I hadn't planned out where I was going or what I would do.  The last time this same thing happened I drove to Barnes and Noble and read parenting books for awhile.  Ridiculous, I know. (I should insert that I didn't do this to relax, it's just how desperate I felt at the moment!)  This time, I drove to the sporting good store and bought myself a women's basketball.

It was a great feeling.  Like I was awakening a part of me that had been comatose for a very long time. I came right back home, and was recharged enough to make it through the evening.  When the kids were in bed, I pulled out my basketball shoes from senior year -of high school, that is- and then fitted my new orthotics into the insoles.  I guess times have changed a bit for me. (Read: I'm getting old.)  Then I grabbed my ball and headed over to the neighborhood elementary school to spend some time shooting around on the 9 foot hoops.

What fun.  I even made a few baskets! I am planning to head back early tomorrow morning.  Looking forward to it.