Wahoo Family

Yesterday was filled with mundane house cleaning, organizing, and other miscellaneous bill-paying, etc.  All things that are super boring for children.  Though we tried entertaining them with their favorite tv shows, arts and crafts, and the pile of 10,000 toys, they were still itching to get out of the house.  Since Eden had a TRU gift card and some money to spend from her birthday, I thought I'd take her and Isla to pick out some things.  Christian needed to finish up some work anyway, so it was good to get us out of the house and give him some peace and quiet.  


The trip started out with the best of intentions.  I made sure that both girls were recently fed, drinks packed for the car ride, and both girls had napped or rested.  What could go wrong?  Never think or speak that if you're a mother, by the way.  Whatever it is that you cannot plan for -- that is the very thing that will go wrong.  


We walked into the store, Eden and I holding Isla's hands.  She's old enough now that she'll walk some holding your hand.  She will, however, make a bolt for it after a while.  She isn't undeserving of her nickname "the blur".  In the short trip from the car to the door, she was already getting antsy to be set free from our hands and began whining.  I lured her into the shopping cart by telling her we were going to "look at toys".  She obliged and immediately spotted a $9.99 dora toy that entertained her well.  I was elated!  This was going to be a great trip!  


Eden is super indecisive.   A trait I've probably given her somehow by osmosis or through my gene pool.  Her father doesn't help.  haha.  It must run in the family.  Anyway, due to this, I instructed her to pick out anything she'd been wanting or really wanted and put it in the cart as we went down the aisle and then at the end, we'd "weed out" and I'd tell her what was over the limit.  She thought this was a great idea and since she had plenty of cash to spend, I felt like the thrill of that in itself would be a big one.  Her eyes were wide and she had no trouble, of course finding several things.  We got about halfway through the store and Isla decided she was done with Dora.  She began noticing other toys on the shelf.  No big deal.  I planned to pick her out something.  After all, a 2 year old can't be expected to understand the concept of "your sister has birthday money to spend".  I quickly realized it was a problem.  It went a little something like this... 


Isla "TAR!"  
Me: "Ohhh yes, I see the guitar.  Here you go. "
Take three steps
Isla "No way!" bang goes the guitar on the ground "ELMO!"
Me: "Ohhh, Elmo.  Yes.  Here you go."
Take three steps
Isla: "No way!" bang goes elmo on the ground "Tyseratropsth!"
Me: "Yep, that sure is a Triceratops.  Dinosaur train.  Here you go."


Mind you, I'm having to pick up and reshelf each toy as we go.  


Poor Eden could barely get a word in edgewise now.  Every now and then Isla would find a to that would hold her interest, but just when I began to get excited about that, I'd hear "Open open open, please!"  As soon as I explained we couldn't open the toys right now that we had to wait until we got to the car she'd launch the toy in the floor and throw herself into a screaming fit.  


Still, we managed to juggle the process as Eden shopped.  


We were towards the end of the trip when Eden realized they had an entire aisle devoted just to crafts/art.  Unfortunately, by the time we reached that spot it was only a few seconds between meltdowns and I began to convince Eden it was time to go for both my own sanity and the others around us.  


By the time we reached the front of the store, I was cursing myself for having taken so long.  Telling myself I should have never allowed Eden to pick out "anything she liked" and was even more mad that I hadn't realized the craft aisle.  


Eden and I were selecting toys, trying to talk over Isla's blood curdling screaming.  We finally got to the counter with our selections and I picked Isla up from the cart.  I hoped that would appease her enough to quiet her.  Unfortunately, since we were at a service desk register, I had now put Isla in close proximity to candy.  


Even though I thought I'd checked everything and counted correctly, we had a strict budget (even if it was a birthday-sized one) and I wanted to stick to it.  So here I was basically screaming at the poor woman behind the counter.  Meanwhile, I was wrangling Isla's now 30 lb body with one hand and removing whole packages of candy from her mouth with the other hand.  Eden was lamenting over toy selections tossed back and whining about toy changes she wanted to make.  In all of the chaos and in trying to use the gift card we had -- the poor cashier had to start the transaction all over from scratch.  I wanted to melt into a puddle of tears and I'm sure she wanted to clobber us.  In order to start our order again, she needed permission to void the order she'd started, which required a manager, of course.  So she looked to her left to the clerk standing next to her.  Among the roar, I could hear the girl coughing.  Just then, she leans over and begins VOMITING into a trash can behind the counter!  Another clerk comes from another aisle to assist her.  I now have 3 clerks behind our counter - 1 standing with the patience from Job wondering when this nightmare will end. All she needed was a manager to clear her transaction.  1 puking and 1 holding her hair and fanning her with a coupon pamphlet.  Finally, the hurling ceased and the care-taking clerk came to our rescue.  


The poor little clerk began ranging up our things again.  She gets to the end and I find that Isla has somehow managed to stuff a bag of M&Ms into her mouth.  I manage to pry it from her grasp, wipe it on my shirt, and ask the clerk to politely "add this too, please".  


Needless to say - we went home and went straight to bed!  


If you visit your local ToysR'Us, I'm fairly certain you'll see Isla's picture on the wall...and maybe a red X or disclaimer.  :)