Child's Play

Yesterday afternoon I was getting in the Christmas spirit with my giveaway and all and I decided that I wanted to make some Gingerbread Men. I thought it would be something that the girls would enjoy decorating and the rest of us would enjoy eating, so it was a win/win situation. That is until I started to get the ingredients together and I realized that my molasses had been thrown away with the Big Move.

I planned to go to Price Chopper, I hadn't been there since the Dance Party , but Julia and Jenna, who just recently started their own soap making business-- Two Sisters Soaps, ran out of glycerin and wanted me to get some at Walmart since Hobby Lobby was closed.

Now I detest Walmart. Really, really, really detest Walmart. It was Sunday late afternoon 2 weekends before Christmas. It would be total insanity to go to Walmart.

I think I've redeemed my Mother of the Year Nomination.

It was cold yesterday afternoon, as in frigid cold, so I decided to just take Emma with me. We left a crying Ryan (oops, lost Mother of the Year again) and drove to Walmart. The parking lot was completely full (of course) and I almost left, but I didn't want to disappoint Julia. She was in the middle of a soap batch and she doesn't know much about delayed gratification. Like mother, like daughter. Who was the one who had to go to the store in the first place?

Amazingly enough, I found a parking spot close to the door, the aisle's weren't overly crowded although they didn't have Julia's glycerin, and I got right to a cashier without waiting in line at all. I was thinking to myself, I think this is the best Walmart experience I've ever had!

I loaded the molasses, frosting, a Christmas dress I found for Emma, a couple of pizzas for dinner, and a few other things onto the conveyor belt and as the cashier scanned my items I reached into my purse to get out my wallet to slide my new, shiny debit card. However there was a slight problem. My wallet wasn't in my purse.

I was feeling deja vu from my most recent Costco experience and my new debit card. I looked down at happy, sweet, innocent looking Emma and said "I'm going to kill you."

I definitely lost Mother of the Year with that one.

You see, my two youngest children can entertain themselves. They play alone or together for the longest time although sometimes a dose of Yo Gabba Gabba helps. As Emma has gotten much more mobile, she has become like a One Baby Path of Destruction. The house is littered with her examinations of the interior contents of drawers, cabinets, baskets, etc. As I'm cleaning up one mess, she's behind me creating another. Some days I don't even bother until she goes to bed. And then some days I don't even bother then.

I said I was honest here.

But one of Emma's new fascinations is my purse. Not exactly my purse, but something inside my purse: my wallet. I usually put my purse next to my computer desk, on the floor so it's definitely easy access. It's not unusual to find the child with wallet in hand and open pulling out cash and credit cards. She takes nothing else out of my purse, just the wallet. Smart girl.

You think that I would figure out by now that I need to put my purse somewhere else. Hello!!! But the question is where? Upstairs is inconvenient and everywhere else down stairs is too low. So I knew instantly what happened to my wallet and where it was.

I told the cashier that I didn't have my wallet and that I was calling my son to have him bring it to me. I was utterly embarrassed, although less so after the Costco Incident, but it was ironic that this was actually kind a phobia I have, that I'll got to check out somewhere and not have my wallet. It seemed the ultimate of embarrassments. For the record, I've experienced far worse. Besides, its good to face our fears.

The cashier told me she'd set my bags to the side while I waited at the front for Ross. After waiting for Ross much longer than necessary for him to show up (he had a bathroom emergency after his earlier Starbucks run, gotta love the Starbucks to get the pipes moving) I finally had the cashier recheck my items, I used my working debit card and I took my purchases and my baby home. Don't worry. She was already forgiven.


Seriously, how can you look at this sweet face and stay mad?

I brought Emma and my 3 bags inside and started to unload my items and I looked around asking "Where's my molasses?" It wasn't there. Apparently it was one of the few items she didn't rescan.

Some days I just can't catch a break.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you haven't entered already, be sure to enter The Second Day of Christmas here. You have until Monday at 9:00 pm CST.