Find Something Good to Say

One of my worst qualities is my ability to focus so extremely well on the negative. I read some of my friend's blogs and they just ooze love for their kids. I don't mean this in a negative way...I am, in fact, quite jealous. I know these moms get annoyed with their kids because they post their "episodes," but they also post really sweet, wonderful things about their kids pretty darn frequently.

Me....not so much. I mostly gripe.

So let me say something good about my kids.

Today, we went to Meijer to look at patio furniture set. D has been wanting patio furniture...like a table and matching chairs with an umbrella for about, oh let's see, 10 years. And I have always declined because I simply cannot stomach paying as much for outdoor furniture as I did my basement sofa which gets use 12 months a year instead of the 3-5 outdoor furniture would get. And D doesn't even particularly like the outdoors (which he would say is because he's never had anything comfortable on which to sit so how could he enjoy the outdoors?).

So, I have decided outdoor furniture and an umbrella would be good to have picnics with N with, and D has decided that we don't have to have the top-of-the-line furniture. It seems new outdoor furniture may be in our future. Aha, a sale.

We get there, see it, like it. Find a stand-alone umbrella that we like. A purchase is pending. But, wait, we don't have a truck and Meijer won't let us purchase and then hold it until we can get my dad's truck. D is ready to leave and come back another day. I know that if we wait until tomorrow or whenever we can get my dad's truck, the furniture will be gone. This is the same dilemma we have every year. If we look at furniture, we don't have a truck. So we hold off on buying until June, and then everything except the most expensive or the crappy stuff is gone.

"Let's just get it," I say. We agree that N, G and I will stay at Meijer with the biggest box while D runs the other 2 boxes home. Then he will come back for the biggest box while N, G and I visit the baby and toy sections of the store. And this is what we do.

Now other kids who are tired and hungry would be crying and fussing and just completely undone, but my kids (on this particular day when all the stars must have been aligned perfectly), were wonderful. Very patient. G just drooled and giggled and smiled at every person who passed him in the cart. N played with some stuffed animals and waited ever so patiently. At one point she said she had to pee, so I asked the greeter to watch our cart while we visited the bathroom. N said, "But what about the box? Won't someone take it? Don't we need to watch it?" She was very intent on doing our job to the best of our ability.

Both kids were bushed because they were asleep by the time we got home...and deep enough in slumber to not wake up even when we carried them in the house.

I wish I could take credit for them being so good but I can't. I knew we were entering treacherous territory by keeping them out for so long under not the most fun conditions, but they were super.