Another day of wonderful
I know it is hard to believe, but today was another typical
Tait day. Lawson and Garrison both had an appointment with Dr. D. It had been a
couple of weeks since we had seen her, so I was starting to have withdrawals J
The last time we saw her was by chance at Publix last Tuesday before my last
doctor’s appointment. We even got to meet one of her daughters. Of course,
Lawson ran up to her and saw her before I even did. What can I say, they are
tight. Today was just a check up to check Garrison’s ears and Lawson’s
allergies. I can proudly say they are both well!! I don’t know if we have ever
gotten that response before. I would have to say that usually at least one of
them leaves there with a prescription. Not today, though. Today was a great
visit. Thank the Lord!
Dr. D is wonderful with the boys. She is super patient with
Lawson and always lets him play with the stethoscope and listen to his own
heart and baby brother’s and also lets him play with the otoscope. He is
particularly fond of the light on it. I really hope all of this early medical
experience may stick with him and maybe he will be a doctor. I can hope,
right?! Lawson is so chatty with her,
too. Of course, that child rarely goes a minute without talking so that is no
surprise. Before we left Dr. D challenged us to make it through the whole
summer without getting sick. I am determined to do it, too!
After the appointment we went to Kinnucan’s to look for some
Sperry flip flops for Father’s Day. I went to the back of the car to get out my
umbrella stroller and…NO STROLLER. Uh oh. I forgot to put it back in after our
trip last weekend. Woops! So, I tote Garrison, the diaper bag, and hold Lawson’s
hand and in we go. Of course, as soon as we are in the door Lawson sees toys
and takes off and GW is bucking like a horse to get down, too. Off they go with
me running after. We finally do a quick look through the shoes, no Sperrys in
Daddy’s size but both boys have found a toy they want, of course. Being the pushover that I am, I proceed to pay for them.
Two super-high bouncing balls. I can’t even remember the actual name of them,
but I have to admit, they are pretty cool. They say they will bounce up to 75
feet. While I am trying to pay, Lawson finds a drink cooler and gets a Sprite
and a water out. We add that to the pile. Then he keeps opening and closing the
door, meanwhile Garr is running all around the store. I keep having to chase
him down and bring him back over, getting on to Lawson “if you open that cooler
one more time…” then finish trying to write out my check. I hand the drinks to
the boys and try to finish up paying. Oh, the cashier needs to see my license.
Seriously? Don’t you just want to let me go? So, I fish that out. All of a
sudden crash, splash, scream. Garrison has dropped the new bottle of water and
it busted spraying all over the floor and all over Lawson. Lawson hates to be
wet! I don’t blame him, I am the same way, but man he freaks out. Lawson is
screaming “Garrison! I don’t wanna be wet!! I don’t waaaannnnaaaa beeee
wettttt!”Garrison jumps in the rather large puddle and starts playing in it,
the man in line behind me starts laughing, the cashier is standing there with
her mouth open, and I quickly snatch up
what is left of the bottle of water while telling Lawson it’s ok and grabbing
Garrison out of the puddle. I then look at the cashier and simply say “Sorry.”
I high-tailed it out of there after that. The man in line behind me looked at
me before we left, as I am dragging Lawson by the hand while he’s still crying
and toting Garrison around the waist, and told me to have an interesting rest
of the day. Don’t worry, guy….I did.
You would think I might have given up after that, right?
Maybe said, oh well, let’s go home. But I am a glutton for punishment. No, I
just like to think that I have lots of patience or maybe I am crazy, the jury
is still out on that one. We went on
down to Dillard’s looking for shoes. While making my way down there, I am
cursing myself for forgetting to put the stroller back in the suburban.
Ah, Dillard’s. I think that every employee in the shoes and
makeup department there today regretted helping me. I bet next time they might
just run the other way. It was like The Perfect Storm. Everything came together
just right to make it a really bad shopping experience for me and the boys.
Both boys were overly tired, Garrison had no stroller to ride in (be strapped
in), Lawson was bored and hungry, and I really needed to get some new makeup
from Clinique. Oy! First stop, children’s shoes. I bought Garrison some of the
cutest little Sperrys. The boys did OK at this stop, Garrison pulled down a few
pairs of shoes and Lawson LICKED the mirror a couple of times, EW, but other
than that, it was OK. Next stop, makeup. Poor, poor Clinique girls, they had no
idea what was headed their way. While I was trying to pay, Lawson finds a chart
on the chair and starts asking one of the girls 101 questions about it. She
kept replying, “It tells you what makeup to buy” then he would ask “Ma’am, but
what does this say?” and she would repeat it and then he would point to something
else and the cycle would continue. Meanwhile, Garrison, who is standing right
beside me, found the stash of cotton balls that are out and starts to throw
them everywhere. I am attempting to write another check while all of this is
going on. Next time, maybe I should just use cash…I pick up all of the cotton
balls and off to the men’s shoes we go. This is where it gets really crazy.
Lawson announces that he has to potty, NOW! So we take off as quickly as
possible to the upstairs bathroom. Why do these places not have multiple
bathrooms all over the store!? As a side note, why do they not have carts or
buggies or little car stroller things or something, either?! Come on Dillards, people with kids shop here,
too. I digress…So we make it to the bathroom and Lawson tee tees. I realize I
really kind of need to tee tee, too. Dang Starbucks, again. For the most part I
have my bladder trained, no stops while out shopping, it just requires too much
time and energy, but Starbucks won out again. So, I put Garrison down, put a
potty protector over the seat, and attempt to somewhat hover while trying to
keep GW from touching ANYTHING and Lawson from opening the stall door before I
am done. Needless to say, hovering while
trying to hold a toddler between your outstretched legs and threatening to beat
your 3 year old is not super successful.
Back to the men’s shoes….Lawson has met his limit. He is
done shopping. He continues to run amuck all over the shoe department. Lawson
tries to run in one direction while Garrison tries to run in the other. I find
the shoes I am looking for and start to pay. DANG CHECKS! I cannot hold GW
while writing a check, so I put him down and try to keep him from running all
over. Lawson is trying his best to run all over the place while I threaten him
by counting to 3. I have no idea who has replaced my sweet, well mannered boy
and who this is in front of me. He refuses to listen and actually runs away from
me and says, “You can’t catch me!”. OMG! I very calmly grab up Garrison, throw
him on my hip, and walk over to Lawson who takes of running. I catch him and
whisper in his ear …”You just earned two spankings when we get to the car.
Would you like to make it three, son?” and drag him back to finish paying. The
shoe guy looked at Lawson and says “Son, I sure hope you make it through what
you got coming. You better start behaving.” Hahaha. I think he felt bad for me.
Of course, all the way out to the parking lot Lawson is crying and wailing “But
I don’t want a spankin’!!”, which makes me look like an abusive Mother. Somebody call Child Services…
Now, I try my very,
very best not to spank. I really do. I really, really don’t like to yell or
spank him in front of anyone, either. If I do spank, I take him to the bathroom
or another room or something. I like
timeout and taking away privileges and talking it out. However, sometimes it
comes down to it and I will do it if necessary. This was one of those times. It’s
a good thing that we had a little walk to the car because I was about to lose
my cool. It gave me a chance to calm down. It truly surprises me when Lawson acts this way
because it so rarely happens and when the three chances and counting to three
doesn’t work, I am usually blown away. It so rarely backfires. Yes, I did spank him when we got to the car.
He cried for all of a minute. I don’t think it really even hurt. We then talked
about the way he acted and why it was wrong and how he is supposed to act. I
hope it sank in.
After that we went to Target, then Chick Fil A then headed
home. Lawson ate and was asleep before we even made it to the airport. Lawson
fell asleep with his milk shake in his hand and sneaky little Garrison seized the
opportunity to snatch it. I looked in the rear view mirror and Garrison is
happily drinking Lawson’s milk shake out of the straw. I sighed, Ok, he is
doing well. No mess yet. Then, he decided to turn it up and the darn thing has
a round hole in the top. Vanilla milk
shake dumps all over Garrison’s face, body, car seat, and my car seat. I just
laughed and pulled over and cleaned him up the best I could. My car should smell really great tomorrow. A nice mix of spoiled milk and fried food. Let's be honest, not like it hasn't smelled worse than that before.When we got home
Chuck took one look at Garrison with his matted, sticking up hair, stained
sticky polo, and sticky face and hands and asked “What happened to Garrison?”
While on the way home, I had my IPod on shuffle. Darius
Rucker ,”It Won’t Be Like This For Long” came on. It gets me every.single.time!
I reflected over the day, looked at both of my sleeping boys in the rear view
mirror, Lawson with his baseball cap on backwards and Garrison with his sticky,
matted vanilla milkshake hair, and cried a little. As fast-paced and stressful
as the day was, I wouldn’t trade a minute of it. Even the “bad” parts. I love
every minute of every day I am blessed to spend with my darling boys. Do they
make me crazy? Absolutely. Did I want to snatch a knot in one or both of them at
some point today? You bet. Do I wonder why in the world I attempt to shop with
them both in tow? All the time. But do I do it again? Every time. But I can
honestly say I love every minute of it. I truly do. But do I love a little
break now and then? Yes, yes I do J
My Cup Runneth Over
~Shana~
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