morning has broken

Remember that old Cat Stevens tune? Sure you do, and if you're like me, you love a little Cat Stevens every now and then. Peace train? Come on. Admit it. You love it.

Anyway, this morning broke me. As in, I nearly lost it.

S and I took a little jaunt into Nashville this morning. I needed some more dish detergent from Target, and we were hunting for a new POTTY CHAIR. S decided yesterday that she was interested in the potty. Really, I think she was just using it to stall at naptime and bedtime, but I don't know for sure. She also woke up this morning asking to watch her "big kids" video, which is about potty training, so I'm hoping that she's ready. I had been planning for awhile to replace the potty chair that we already had. It had multiple parts that she could take off and use as hats or costumery. (I know that's not a real word.) As that completely grossed me out, and her potty chair looked miserably uncomfortable, I thought another one might be better. Plus, I've read that if you let your child make the decision about their own potty chair, she might be more apt to use it.

Moving on...

First we went to Target. Their potty chair selection was seriously lacking, so we picked up our dish detergent and some Halloween stickers and headed to Toys R US. This is where the morning got out of hand. S wanted to walk. In and of itself, that isn't a huge deal. She's been into walking on her own lately, and I thought I could trap her inside in the little cart vestibule area and get her into a cart. No dice. She's smart enough to understand automatic doors. So, I grabbed a cart and hightailed it inside after her. Then, I realized that I felt woozy. Like, "I may actually fall down, and I feel seriously overheated, and, "S come here right now and put down that baton," and what is wrong with me?" After standing there for a minute, I realized that I had forgotten to eat or drink anything this morning and it was already 10am. That likely had something to do with it. I've never really thought about my blood sugar, but I'm pretty sure I was bottomed out. Halloween candy bags were right there at the door, so I grabbed one. I then ate a peanut butter cup and just stood still for a minute while S oohed and ahhed through the aisle. Okay, I felt well enough to proceed. I convinced S that it was a good idea to follow me so we could look at potty chairs, but she got sidetracked by this. Just shoot me. It took a good five minutes to get her to leave it alone. I finally made her understand that her options were to come with me or be forced into the cart. We made it to the potty chair aisle, which also happens to be the shampoo/bath crayons/lotion aisle. S was interested in two different chairs. One is the same as Kristie's daughter's, and I've read good things about it online. I was hoping for that one, but I was prepared to have to bring home the Elmo potty even though I'd sworn never to buy a potty that does tricks. While she kept looking at the Elmo potty and talking about it, she kept wanting to sit on the Baby Bjorn potty, so we bought that one.

We also had to pick up part of L's 1st birthday gift, and that little errand, which should have taken all of 47 seconds, took almost half an hour because S kept stopping to go all googly eyed over the toys.

She'd had all she could take by the time we got to the checkout lane, where you know they were as slow as molasses. We had to finish our little transaction through many tears and sobs. That was rather tricky as, unbeknownst to me, S had been filling our cart with all manner of crap while I wasn't looking, and I had to keep looking at what the girl was ringing up and saying, "I'm sorry, I didn't pick up that Thomas the Train soap or those nine packs of bathtub markers or that robot book."

My poor overstimulated child was in complete hysterics by the time I was able to wrangle her into the car. She calmed down when I got her some lunch.

Since we've been home, things have been a little calmer, but not much. I've got my fingers crossed that the remainder of my day goes more smoothly, otherwise, I may take to drinking.

Happy Thursday, peeps.