The Ups and Downs of Motherhood

Today I took Spencer with me to the grocery store, and I was amazed at how much fun it was to be with him.

• He hopped on one foot throughout about half of the aisles--with a big smile on his face.  Every few seconds he'd yell out, "I'm HOPPING!!!"  (This is a new skill.)

• He got really excited about these shamrock cookies they had on display, so I just had to give him one, and he marveled at it with huge eyes as he said, "I can eat it?  Please?"

• Then he wanted to help me bag the fruit, and he loved counting the pears, and then he showed me how he can walk backwards, and then he kissed me at least six times before we'd finished with the produce.

I thought, "Wow.  Grocery shopping is so much fun when you have a little guy with you."

And then we got home.

• Spencer didn't want to get out of the van, so he started jumping back and forth over all the seats, finally ending up in the driver's seat--which is a train wreck waiting to happen because he shoves things into the CD player (which hasn't worked for 9 months now, thanks to Spencer), and he turns on the windshield wipers, lights, etc.  I tried to grab him, and that turned into a 15-minute tantrum where I had to strap him in the stroller to keep him from hurting himself (and me), and then I had to bring in all the groceries while he screamed and kicked and wailed at the top of his lungs.  Fortunately, I have patient neighbors.

• Once he finally agreed to say, "I'm sorry I was mean Mommy, and I will choose to be nice now," I let him out of the stroller, and he helped me bring in the groceries.  Except "bringing in the groceries" means picking something out of a grocery sack and flinging it into the kitchen--yogurt, frozen veggies, sacks of peaches . . . .  Yep, we ended up with about 20 peaches (good sale) ALL over the garage floor, and then he wanted to pick them all up HIMSELF while I held the bag for him, and that took about 3 minutes.  

• But finally, I got him some food, and he calmed down, and it's now naptime.

Isn't motherhood fun?