Heather's Evening

There are days when I feel accomplished as a mother. And then there are days like today....

My evening:

Get home. Find out Elli hasn't eaten anything ALL DAY except for bottle (yes, with Carnation Instant Breakfast in it, but still...) and a few snacks. Get frustrated.

Sit Elli in high chair. Make her eat two bites of food (if she hasn't eaten, she generally avoids eating until she figures out "hey, this is actually good."). Tears ensue. Mommy does not back down on getting out of high chair. Instead, Mommy gets out blueberries and baby cheese puffs and bribes Elli to eat rest of peach oatmeal.

Mommy feels very self-satisfied that Elli has eaten 3/4 cup of food plus about 1/4 cup of blueberries and is more happy to play with than eat the baby cheese puffs.

We get in the car to go to Home Depot. We back out of the driveway and Elli starts chanting, "MMMM! Mmmmm!" Mommy wonders what the heck she is talking about until it dawns on her: Most of the time when Mommy and Elli are alone in the car, we head to one place: The Double Dip. She wants ice cream.

Mommy tells Elli that we can have ice cream after we run our errands. I feel self-satisfied that I will get more calories in her tummy this evening.

We zip in and out of the Depot. We get back in the car and head to Kroger. Elli starts crying, and will not stop even when her favorite song is playing. Mommy's frustration level rises.

We get out of car at Kroger and zip in. Mommy grabs more blueberries to replace the ones we ate with dinner. While Elli is twisting in arms to get at the blueberries, I smell the source of the angst from the car. Two thoughts run through my mind: First, good thing I now have diapers and wipes in the car as backup. Second, this is unusual, as Jeremy's mom said she changed a dirty diaper today already, and Elli is a one-dirty-diaper-a-day gal. (Note: Jeremy's mom is watching her because her normal sitter has a stomach bug. This may be an important fact for the story...)

We buy our groceries, get out to the car, and change Elli's diaper. The entire time she is chanting "Eh-mo!" (Guess what Sesame Street character she can now recognize?)

Elli goes back in the car seat and we head to get ice cream.

I get 1 ice cream cone for the two of us because Elli doesn't want any ice cream from the sample spoon. I get my cone and Elli decides it's very interesting. She has about 5 bites, one after the other. Then she looks at me and I see a familiar sort of "Mommy, this isn't going to be good" look on her face. I have just enough time to think, "I wonder if Elli was exposed to the stomach bug..." before the ice cream makes a return visit. Followed by the blueberries. And the peach oatmeal.

So now I'm in the parking lot of the Double Dip, with both Elli and I "Christened" and an ice cream cone in one hand and a mess on the asphalt and Elli clinging to me like I can make the boo-boo tummy go away and I'm sort-of paralyzed with, "Ohmigod, what do I do now?"

I am no longer feeling any self-satisfaction.

So I grab the wipes, throw away the cone, strip Elli down to her diaper, wipe her down, put her in the car with the AC and music running, clean up myself as best I can, clean up the mess on the asphalt as best I can, hop in the car, and head home.

We do not pass go, we do not collect any money (or the groceries) on our way inside and to the shower, where I attempt to traumatize my daughter by having her take a shower with me so that we both smell a little cleaner and fresher. We get out and I put her in her PJ's, we put on my PJ's, we go down and get the groceries (containing the Instant Breakfast powder I need to put in her bottle), make a bottle, head upstairs, and Elli looks at me and says:

Elli: "Where Dada?"
Me: "Daddy's working."
Elli: "Wan Dada."
Me: "Daddy's working."
Elli: "Daddy uggle-uggle"
Me: "No, snuggle-snuggle with Mommy."
Elli: (Looks at me like, "Are you crazy, lady? Do you know what I've been through with you today?", then with a faint trace of hopefullness, says one more time...) Dada?

So why do I still have a good sense of humor about this?

As I was getting Elli ready for bed, we did what we always do, which is talk through her book about "Blessings Come in Color." I asked her, "What color do blessings come in?" And she told me, "Bwooo!" and then I said, "Blue! Great! What other colors?" and she said, "ell-ow!" and I said, "Great! Yellow! What else do blessings come in?" and she paused and looked at me and said, "Mama!"