Just in time..

This morning started off a little rough. I haven't been sleeping well to begin with, but Kessler woke up in the middle of the night. That's never good; it usually means it's going to be a sleepless night for all of us. I decided to just bite the bullet and sleep with him in his bed, his twin bed. It was as pleasant as you are imagining.

Anyway, both kids got up incredibly too early. I tried to convince them to let me sleep; that didn't work. I finally decided that my denial was not going to help matters and got up. They bickered much of the morning and Kessler decided to throw a shit fit when I asked him to take his pajamas off. After quite a bit of negotiating we were all dressed and out the door heading to a new park. The park was probably over a mile away. Both kids walked, without complaining! It was cold so we didn't stay long. We stopped at the supermarket about halfway home. We needed the essentials like milk and toilet paper. I also got some snacks, a clothes hamper and a 24 pack of AA batteries for the kids' Leapsters. I thought the clothes hamper was brilliant. Load it up with the stuff and we'd be golden for the walk home.

Well, you know how all the packaging in the states requires a blow torch or a chain saw to open, like the package for batteries? Imagine my surprise when the pack of batteries fell out of the hamper and all 24 batteries started to roll all over the supermarket floor. I stood there for several seconds in disbelief--this can't be!! First I was thinking, damn! This sucks! Then I was thinking, cool! No heavy equipment required to open the package when I get back to the apartment. The kids and I started scrambling to pick them up with the aide of an employee. We headed to the register to get the heck out of there. We left with an extremely full hamper!!

A few minutes into the final leg of our journey, the handle broke on the hamper. Sonofabitch. I gave the pack of toilet paper to Makena and the pack of paper towels to Kessler. I carried the milk in one hand and tried to hoist the hamper onto my hip for the rest of the walk. We had to have many breaks--specifically because the kids were trying to balance Juney and doggie on top of their respective paper products. That takes time, obviously. At our last break Kess tried to climb onto a chair outside a restaurant. He miscalculated and fell off onto the ground. It scared him far more than anything. I tried to console him, but at this point I desperately wanted to get home. The cold weather became quite hot and the jacket I was wearing was becoming a torture chamber. I couldn't hold his hand. Finally, I decided to take a few steps to see if he would come. He responded with a resounding HELL NO as he stood there screaming and stomping. I retreated, laying down my hamper full of sundries, toilet paper, paper towels (the kids had abandoned them) and the milk and attempted the consolation again.

It wasn't going well, at least not until an angel, dressed in an Nando's (some restaurant) uniform appeared offering the kids little gingerbread men. Kessler snatched up the treat but didn't skip a beat with the crying. The fellow said, "What's wrong, mate?" Kess said, "I felled down." "Oh no, mate. What did you hurt?" "My buuuuummmmm." "Aww, your bum, well why don't you give it a rub." Like a switch, Kessler started laughing. I nearly proposed to the Nando employee on the spot. What a catch after all, given how I obviously have my shit together--walking down Hampton Street with a broken hamper full of batteries and paper products trying to coax a crying 2 year old. He'd be a fool to decline!