Our grocery shopping trip on a Friday is normally a great time for Nicky and I to enjoy the outing together. We have our traditions: such as eating a banana throughout Pick n Pay. Everyone smiles and thinks Nicky is the cutest. I agree: he can be. However, lately he has become a tad bit difficult. Toddlers and shopping? Lots of fun for them, but not necessarily for us…
The stage is set with the pre-requisite lack of sleep. Always good for tipping off bad behaviour.
He does not want to leave his bike behind. (Lately we put the bike in the boot so that he can be close to it. However I need the space for the groceries.) I placate him with another toy (all I can find – Jerry the Giraffe) and off we go.
Nicky always used to sit in the trolley, no problem. These days? Ha! He wants to climb inside. He wants to hang from the edges. He wants to balance on the top. Every position that they tell you not to put your child into.
The first fruit and veg shop he is controllable because he decides to sit in the trolley. Thank goodness. As we leave he decides to hang from the edge. I move the trolley with the utmost care past shoppers and cars and hold my breath a bit. Once we are in the car he demands to be fed. Naartjies. So we have a naartjie break. By the time we get to Pick n Pay he has eaten two of them.
After getting rid of the recycling I decide to take my chances at the public toilet. I am not in the mood for more accidents (we’ve already had one this morning). Big boy does his pee in the big toilet. Yay!
Nicky sits goodly in the trolley for the first part of the shop. Towards the end he gets a bit bored at the till. He sits way on top of the trolley in a very precarious position. I lift him down.
“Up! Up!” he cries. I put him on the counter as the groceries are scanned.
Nicky decides to act like he is next in line and places his feet right towards the cashier. They all think he is so cute but I am constantly pulling him back, stop him from kicking the poor soul trying to scan our groceries, and trying to get food past him. Eventually we finish up there and get back to the car.
My car guard is occupied packing another boot so I start off by getting Nicky in his car seat. Once that is achieved I am then busy with opening the car boot and helping the man pack.
Nicky is for some reason laughing his head off and I can’t work out why. A passer by comments how nice it must be to hear that laugh all day long. I mumble something about lack of sleep, but inside I am thinking: if only you knew…
Turning my attention back to Nicky I realise he is laughing because he has THROWN HIS GIRAFFE clear out of the car. I rescue Jerry, but the minion is unrepentant and continues to think this is hilarious.
Our last stop is Woolworths and by this time, Nicky is really acting up. He is at the stage where he doesn’t want to walk, he doesn’t want to go in the trolley, he just wants to be carried.
Right there at the middle of Woolworths he refuses to get in the trolley and he refuses to walk, or push the trolley. So he sits down and starts turning around in circles.
I eventually manage to get through the shop, partly with him walking, and partly in the trolley.
Now I just need to get him in the car.
These days there are times when I just want to leave a place, and Nicky has other ideas. He wants to climb on the car. He wants to look at the wheel and say “Wheel!” Sometimes he doesn’t want to sit in his car seat and goes over into the boot and I have to struggle to get him in. Eventually we leave.
When we get back I have lots to do because the maid did not pitch (again!) so I must take out the first load of washing, get going with the second load, unpack the car and still hang up the clothes. I am busy in the kitchen and Nicky insists on staying in the car. He wants to eat his naartjie in the car. After numerous times of telling him his naartjie is sitting on the table I eventually bring it there just to have some peace. I finally finish in the kitchen and go and get him so that we can take out the washing together.
Oh dear. He has peed in his pants. “Pee in pants!”
We do a clothes change and I forget about the car for the moment.
We hang up washing and Nicky starts kicking his ball into this goal post we recently got him. This is lots of fun for him until it goes into the pool area. I have to open up to retrieve the ball, but by this time he has his bike and is racing round the pool. (I somehow think that was his plan all along…)
Perhaps not; because his next stunt takes me by surprise. He decides to throw his bike in the pool. By this time I have finished hanging up the washing and have absolutely had it with his behaviour so I tell him the bike can stay right there, despite the plaintive calls: “Bike! bike!”
And so there it floated, like a lost part, just how I felt this day floating away from me. It is now after 1pm but I am determined to get some food in his body before nap time so I make sandwiches. He has one piece.
Nap time comes: he falls right asleep and I have a blessed break for an hour and a half.
When he wakes up after three he is really cranky. He just wants to be held. I have to carry him around while I take in washing and get supper going. In the midst of all of this he does another poop in the pants and I burn the supper.
Just great.
I desperately just need to have two hands free so I can sort out laundry and do the dishes so I put him in front of YouTube videos of panda bears. He sits there quietly and I get a lot done.
Quietness always comes with a catch, doesn’t it?
He has peed on my chair!
In the midst of this clean up, (and an unfortunate meltdown from me) I remember how he peed in the car and have a quick check but I can’t seem to find where he peed. All the windows are open, the sun is shining, and I assume it must have dried out.
I finish up with the dishes and DH phones for us to come and pick him up. Nicky has disappeared. Quietly.
I am determined not to get in the car without getting him to pee so off we go to the potty.
Oh my word. “Poop in pants!”
We now have to do another change before we go. This is why we have so much laundry these days.
I get the dogs out, close up the house, get Nicky in his car seat and activate the alarm.
I am sitting in front and it is as I am turning the ignition that a wet feeling soaks through my pants.
Yes, you are right. I was sitting in pee.
***
After this day, I think DH could see how I was losing my marbles and offered to put Nicky to sleep. Nicky was very confused and slept upside down, but hey… I had a bit of a break!
***
An update to this post: On Saturday we had such a nice day. I didn’t have to be anywhere and I didn’t have many tasks to complete. I could mostly give him my full attention. It occurs to me that the potty accidents are just cries for attention when I am too busy. It’s not good to be too busy. I really hate it when my maid doesn’t pitch….
Your day sounds exhausting!
Yip it was. At least I had a good night’s sleep 🙂
Oh nooo… What a day! Must admit that he laughs are too cute.
Have a great weekend. 🙂
Thanks Celeste!
Heather!! You are one cool mama!! I would have lost it and called shopping a day!!! But I guess when you are a parent to a toddler you need an extra humongous dose of patience
Yikes! You must have been completely knackered after all this! Goodness, I forget how very busy toddlers are and the constant changing clothes when potty training. Hope you had a good few hours to yourself.
It’s such work isn’t it?! This is the perfect post to show your husband what you do all day!
So funny you should say this because he was extra helpful spending time with Nicky on Saturday after reading this post!!
I’m pretty sure that, some mornings, our kids wake up determined to drive us crazy.
lol! esp when they haven’t slept properly!
Oh my goodness Heather is this what I’m in for? I already hate grocery shopping so I can’t even begin to imagine this… I think I may very well be the one peeing in the car after this experience!!
I laughed the whole way through this all the while praying that by some miracle when my child gets to this stage, I will be the queen of ordering groceries online.
😛
I’m glad I gave you a laugh 🙂
This is so like it is. Well-described! The more you have to do, the more toddlers want your attention. So there are days like that….. Good thing there is still a sense of humour going. And you both got through it all, laundry included.