It was only supposed to get up to 50 degrees outside today, so it wasn't quite warm enough for a walk with the kiddos; Mollie gets cold easily and hates to have wind blowing in her face, so I thought I'd spare her the agony of being carried on a "freezing cold" walk.
We still needed to get a Mother's Day gift for my mother-in-law, though, so I did a little research, found something that looked good at our local mall, and told the kiddos we were heading out. Baylor was, initially, overjoyed; he shrieked with delight at the thought of riding all the elevators and escalators he could get his hands on. Mollie dutifully headed for the door and found her shoes - she's actually getting really good at following commands like that.
Unfortunately, when I went to get the kids into the car, Baylor wouldn't climb into his car seat like a big boy. I should have seen this as writing on the wall, but I chalked it up to him being overly excited and helped him in myself. Then he told me that we were going to the Gardens. In reply, I repeated our plans to go to the bookstore in the mall, get the book, walk around, ride elevators and escalators, and have fun. To me, that sounded like a pretty sweet deal, and he must have agreed because he sat still long enough for me to buckle him in.
Fifteen minutes later, we climbed out of the car in a prime parking spot at the mall. After getting myself into the Ergo Baby, I unbuckled Baylor and gently but firmly told him to stay right next to me, that we were in a parking lot and it was dangerous to run away. I got Mollie into the baby carrier, shut her door, then locked the car up, but as I went to grab Baylor's hand he dashed away from me, just itching to run and stretch his legs. Unfortunately, he ran right into the road causing me to have a mommy heart attack, running after him with Mollie strapped to my chest. I hurried him to the side of the road and then sternly told him exactly why we don't do that.
The madness continued after our first elevator ride up to the second floor of the bookstore; Baylor saw a clock he wanted and, though educational and exactly what I wanted to buy for him not that long ago, it was not something I had planned on getting and was decently expensive so I told him we couldn't get it ... and then he threw a small fit. He flopped onto the floor and whined and pouted. At this point, I was beginning to see that this trip sans stroller was going to be a huge mistake. It took a couple tries, but I finally got him peeled away from the clock, only to have him remember about the train table in the kids' section. I explained to him, after yet another small few fits, that we had to get Grandma's gift first then we could go play with the trains.
And he did well, bolstering my spirits that he could indeed be reasoned with, so we went back to the train table and played. I even unstrapped Mollie from the baby carrier and let her stretch her legs a bit. I explained to them both, though, that I was setting the alarm clock on my phone and that, after ten minutes, we'd have to go when it went off. They seemed cool with it; well, Baylor seemed cool with it and Mollie just looked thrilled not to be penned up.
Then it happened. A few minutes into playing, a couple other kids came to the train table to play. Baylor backed away from the table, his eyes grew big and sad, and he said, "No other kids can play with the trains!"
*sigh*
More than him sitting on the floor and pouting, this embarrassed me. Suddenly he became "doesn't play well with others", something no mother wants her child to be. I tried to explain to him that this was a toy for everyone to play with, but he was emphatic that no other child (including his sister) be allowed to play with the train table. A minute or so into his pout-fest, the timer went off on my phone and we had to leave anyway. While it was a relief to have an easy out, my mind was already spinning with thoughts of, "We have to get him into a play group soon ..."
*sigh*
We got back on the elevator, checked out, then made our way into the mall. Baylor had asked to go to Macy's to ride the elevator and escalator, so I obliged him since I was pretty sure this was the last time we were going to the mall without a stroller any time soon anyway. He did well at Macy's, possibly - in part - because I was very clear about what we would be doing: riding the elevator up and down once, then riding the escalator up and down once. That was it. He did both without complaint. Then I told him it was time to go home.
Cue the complaints.
Once again, he threw himself on the floor and pouted and whined. I knew he was tired and probably hungry, so I tried very hard to have loads of patience with him. In the end, we left Macy's with me carrying him in my left arm ... Mollie still strapped to my chest, of course. Yes, I got a lot of looks and more than a few whispers; two ladies I passed said, "Ooh, she looks like she has her hands full!"
Um, yes. Yes, I did.
Baylor walked a couple times during our epic trek across the mall, but I carried him most of the way. And most of the way, I plodded along, eyes straight ahead avoiding the gaze of others, hoping that the sweat I could feel all over wasn't as noticeable to everyone else.
How's that for a fail of a mall trip?
No comments:
Post a Comment