Shoe Envy, Mommy Fails and Teddy Grahams

Normally, Caden is not particular about what he wears.  In fact, he considers pants optional pretty much all the time.  But today, he decided to care.  Alot.  We were trying to get out the door to preschool and we were running late.  It was picture day and so of course I took a little extra time in getting the kids ready.  In particular, Addison's hair.  Which had to been done and redone a couple of times.  She'd sit really still and then without warning she'd flip her head up or around right before I was ready to put the elastic in, causing me to start all over.  Ug.  But we did get ready and all that was left were our shoes.  Silly me, for thinking that wearing Caden's new shoes would be a good idea.  He let me put them on, but when I put Addison's old shoes on (they were the only ones that matched her outfit) he suddenly decided that the Earth was spinning off of it's axis and a total meltdown ensued.

I first tried to pacify him by saying I would get his old shoes and put them in the car with us.  But he was too smart for that.  Plus, when I walked toward the car with his old shoes he started screaming.  Imagine the sound of a locomotive screeching to a dead halt from top speed and that is pretty much what I'm talking about.  So I walked ahead and put Addison in the car.  Which resulted in Caden falling to the floor with tears streaming down his face as he yelled, "Mommy don't leave Caden!"  I came back, took off the new shoes and socks, and put on the olds.  It matched ok.  More importantly it somehow returned Earth to its axis and he climbed in the car like nothing had happened.  I know this won't be the first time that my style choice gets overruled or that my advanced planning gets screwed up at the last second.  That's Mommy Fail #1 and #2.

It's at this exact moment that Addison decides she needs to go get Frog.  (Never mind the fact that I had dutifully brought three other favorite toys with us to the car to help us hurry.)  Mommy Fail #3.  Once Frog had been retrieved we zipped to school.  Where Addison promptly bonked her head getting out of the car because I was rushing her.  Mommy Fail #4.  And just to top things off, we found that we were late enough that the doors were locked.  So we had to troop around the building and up a flight of stairs to come in the main door, then back down the stairs to their room, costing us another five minutes.  Mommy Fail #6,029.  What I really wanted to do after dropping them off was to collapse into a heap on my bed and not wake up for a while.  But I skipped off to do some errands instead.

I made stops at six different stores during preschool.  Here's the breakdown:

• Returned six pairs of toddler shoes (I have to buy lots for at-home trying-on, the kids and multiple shoe stores don't do well together).  
• Returned some toddler clothes that didn't make the picture day cut
• Bought a new workout top for me.  (It doesn't fit, b/c I didn't try it on in the store to save time, which means I have to make a return trip--Mommy Fail #29,830).  
• I picked up some groceries at Wal-mart and even squeezed in...
• A quick stop at Food Lion.  I thought since our morning had been so rushed, and since I hadn't had time to get back home to prep their lunch, it would be lovely of me to bring them a special snack for the ride home.

And it was lovely.  Only I was one of the last people to pick up, Caden announced to me that he had poop in his pants the moment we hit the sidewalk (it ended up not being poop, but still!), Addison was wet, and I discovered that they had used all their diapers from their school bags.  So we had to ride home yucky, but happily munching on TEDDY GRAHAMS!  For all my Mommy Fails today I did get that right.