My apologies.....

Wow! This single mom stuff is for the birds!! Poor Gary is gone from 6am until 10pm every day. 7 days a week. We miss him. ;-( Things should be changing soon though. The new store opening is going great. And since it's a restaurant, we do go visit him for some meals together.

So, with the little tornadoes being two and active and the house getting trashed constantly, we've been on the go a lot. And I've had to take the little tikes with me on a lot of errands.

Therefore, I would like to take a moment and extend a few apologies:

1) To my fellow shoppers at Wally World (Walmart). My apologies for Austin's meltdown last week. I thought I had it under control. I thought he'd rally any second. It wasn't until the nice, polite Walmart employee came over and gently tapped me on the shoulder that I realized we were disturbing the peace. With a soft smile he said, "Mam, we're going to open up Lane 16 for you." Oh? It's that bad? Really? Then, out of nowhere, nice Mom #1 showed up with an encouraging smile saying "Oh, I've been there, here let me help you unload your groceries." And nice Mom #2 told the cashier, "She's gonna need some help getting to the car. Will you call someone?"

Once finished with our purchases, we were making our way out, when Austin mustered the loudest, "All DONE shopping, Mommy!!" I have ever heard. I didn't make eye contact with anyone, just whispered, "Yes, baby, All Done shopping. Everybody in here knows that YOU are all done shopping. All done, baby." LOL

In hindsight, Austin wailed (yelled, screamed, cried) for apprx 20 minutes!?! Isn't that horrible? I always thought I would "abort mission" mid-shopping trip during a meltdown if it ever happened. But in the midst of it, I just kept thinking, "He'll pull it together. This can't last." Oh, mommy education in the real world!

2) To my fellow movie-goers last Thursday: My apologies for both Austin and Logan screaming at the top of their lungs when the lights went down. It was their first movie theatre experience ever and those loud previews just scared the dickens out of them! Thank goodness I had my little 7 old year Momma's helper with me. I've never seen a truer description of "All Hell Breaking Loose" then at that moment. Austin and Logan turned half-wild toddler half wild animal on us in zero seconds flat. Bless her heart, Aracelli managed to actually carry one twin out while he was somewhere between "up in her hair" and "all four limbs wrapped around her neck." I grabbed knapsacks, coats, one child (If I remember correctly he was basically ripping my shirt off trying to find a way to get in it) and led the group out in the complete and total blackness only a movie theatre can achieve. Once outside the movie (but not the complex), we took a full ten minutes to comfort the twins and assure them we were not going back in. We then walked the length of the complex to their extremely loud in unison, "Bye-bye Movie! Bye-Bye Movie! BYE- BYE."

Okay, got it - Not ready for movies yet.

3) To the Target shoppers two nights ago: My apologies if you thought I was a crazy Mom endangering my children. I won't say I had the situation "under control." But I will say that carrying my child by his foot was "necessary at the moment" and I had a game plan of making it to the nearest shopping cart to deposit both he and his brother. I know....why didn't I already have a shopping cart!?! Ugh, it's just so tiring getting two out of the car, two into a cart, two into the store...blah, blah, blah. I just wanted to run in and score another $0.50 July 4th shirt for next year like the one I had just scored at another Target 10 minutes before. All we had to do, was run in, grab the shirt, check out and run back to the car. There was no shirt (in fact, there doesn't seem to be another one anywhere in Richmond or on Target.com or Ebay, etc. boo hoo!), so we were on our way out (They had behaved REALLY well up until this part!!), when the jewelry-earring-holder-spinny thing caught their attention. One would twirl it while the other batted whatever jewelry he could off of it. I managed to "Clean up, clean up everybody, everywhere!" and then established eye contact with my two co-flingers, "Do you want to walk out of here or have Mommy carry you?" Walk! "Okay, hold my hand and lets go." Austin on my left. Logan on the right. And we almost made it. Austin broke bad first (trying to make a quick get away) and I quickly picked him up. Then, Logan dropped all of his weight on me. I'm an experienced two-armed child picker-upper/carrier - so although picking up a child one-handed and slinging him onto my hip may have offended some of my co-shoppers, it's a move we're well used to. The problem happened when Logan continued to wriggle and writhe his way out of my arms using all four hands and feet to push himself away from me. We were approaching the door. Lots of red carts ahead. That's why when I was down to just hanging on to him by his foot, I knew we were going to make it. I had it under control. I know it may have appeared chaotic and dangerous to some of you. That's why I'm apologizing. But 'round heyer, we raise 'em wild!

(Are you getting tired yet?)

4) Okay, to Evan - those new bedsheets were not just because "You're a good kid and I found them on sale." In truth, I owe you my apologies because during an upstairs streakfest, the boys
made it into your room, had a little too much fun jumping on your bed sans clothes and well, leakage ensued. So, "yay" new sheets (and a new waterproof mattress protector) for you!

5) And lastly, to Austin. Mommy did not mean to shoot you in the face with the water bottle this morning. I was trying to wrestle the bottle away from Logan because he was shooting the TV, the couch, the dog, etc. And when I grabbed it, it happened to be pointed directly at you. You were SO happy saying, "Momma, watch me, watch me" as you were getting ready to take off for flight in your imagination airplane and then the water hit you right across your nose and into your eyes. You were so stunned, the look on your face just broke my heart. I admit, when I came to hug you, I was a little shocked at your response, "No, bad Momma. Zit in Tom Oat, MOM-MA. Zit the stairs." But overall, I agree with your method. Even though it was an accident, you did get hurt, Momma was being rough and not very careful. And I deserved to go "Sit in time-out on the stairs." So, "Sar-wee, Austin. Sar-wee for hitting you with water. Momma loves you."

Okay, one more apology to make, to my fellow bloggers. I am officially a...

Bogger on the run - I'm loggin on to any public computer I can find. I'm a blogger who's means to blog have been taken way!

I swear - I'm getting around to the blogs in my roll call, I just can't comment. My apologies! I miss you all like crazy!
-Happy Anniversary, Bobbi! Love the wedding pics! And I'm upset, too at how grown up Reese is getting. Stop HIM!
-Steph - Eli is adorable. It looks like he's thrilling all who meet him. Happy re-adoption Day!
- Heidi - I'm still stalkin' your site for news and progress! It's TIME!
Gwen - I'm especially mourning this next week since you were supposed to be here! ;-( I truly, truly hope we can get something scheduled! And hope you're feelin better soon!
Lisa - Love the new blog look! Did Sophia win the photo contest? She, too is changing and growing!
All - we are planning to attend Guatoberfest! Anyone else?

Latest on my computer: They're ordering parts and it should be another week or two. Argh!

No pictures, but I hope I at least entertained you!