The Day From ...

The day from...

Well I'll just let you use your imagination as to how I wanted to end that phrase.

We woke up that morning and by some miracle I had managed to get myself and all three girls up, dressed and fed by 9:30am even though we had no place to go. So Target just seemed like the logical option for a quick outing. I got two of the three girls in the car when Baby Girl decided she wanted to throw a fit. I'm talking screaming, crying, flailing fit.

That was it. That was the sign that is so obvious to me now that I should have gotten them all out of the car and put them back in the house and then that would have been the end of the story. But no, I had to push the envelope. Everyone was already in the car. We were dressed. The diaper bag was stocked. No, we were going.

I had to drive around long enough for Baby Girl to stop hyperventilating. I even turned around at one point and made it back home, but then I let the older girls convince me that they would be good and all the tears finally stopped. So we made it to our destination and low and behold we got the very first parking spot right by the front door. I took it as a sign that this trip could be salvaged. It was only later that I loathed my luck in getting such a coveted spot.

It took five minutes of us being parked for the girls to realize that we were at Target. I had my face in my hands still trying to recoup from the meltdown that had just gone on for some 30 minutes or so. Eventually we all made it inside and of course there were no school bus sized carts, so I let R walk and put the other two inside a smaller cart.

We got our coffee and snacks and started on our shopping expedition when G, my typically happy-go-lucky baby, was not so happy anymore. Before I knew it, I was holding her with one hand and pushing the cart with the other. Only moments after that Baby Girl came to the realization that she was the only one without freedom here, so she spent the rest of the trip trying to climb out of the cart as her big sister darted in and out of my line of sight.

I was quickly regretting my decision to even get out of bed that morning.

Okay, we're done.

We grabbed the few things we actually needed and headed for the checkout lane.

I put G back in her carseat as I tried to coax Baby Girl to sit still for five more minutes and begged R to keep one hand on the cart while I payed so I could keep track of her.

G starts to scream. I take a deep breath. I am SO close to being out of here. I can do this.

I pick G back up and throw everything I've just bought into the cart on top of her carseat. I then proceed to the car while holding G with one hand, push the cart with the other while R is running in the parking lot and Baby Girl is halfway out of the cart.

"For the love of everything that is good just GET ME OUT OF HERE!"

When we make it to the car, the girls insist on climbing in through the trunk. At this point, I couldn't care less how they get into the car so I happily throw them in through the trunk if that means they are contained in a safe place. I take a HUGE sigh of relief. It has to be all downhill from here.

Nope. It only gets worse.

I get everything in the trunk, CLOSE THE TRUNK, buckle a screaming G into her carseat (that is still in the cart at this point), go to open G's door and..... you guessed it...

LOCKED.

NO KEYS IN SIGHT.

Yep, they are in the trunk of my SUV. I never unlocked the doors because the girls went in through the back and now I'm THAT mom.

So my coveted front parking spot has now made me a spectacle and my normally calm demeanor is about to give way to the tears of an exhausted, frustrated, overwhelmed mom.

I keep it together, pull the cart with a screaming baby over to the other side of the car and try to get the girls' attention. They are ignoring me and running amuck inside the car. As inconspicuously as I can, I am tapping on the window saying, "You know that thing I tell you NEVER to do?? Yea, do that! Unlock the door!"

A couple pulls up beside me and asks if I locked my keys in the car. **Hold in sarcastic, angry comment Bethany. They mean well.** "Yes," I reply smiling.

"Are there children in there??" **NO! I'm just telling the car to unlock itself!! Bethany keep it together.** "Yes, two small children," I say with a smile fighting back the tears. Now I have an audience gathering around my car, a screaming baby beside me and two oblivious children in the car.

Eventually, by some miracle I convince R to unlock the door. Yes! This nightmare is OVER... If only... I then open the door and the alarm starts blaring. I reach in to try and unlock the doors, but because I didn't open it "properly" (with the keys) the other doors won't unlock, the trunk won't pop and the alarm won't stop going off. So with the baby still screaming outside the car, I push past two small children, leap over three carseats, climb around three strollers, dig through all of the groceries, find the keys, turn off the alarm and then turn around and have to go back out the same way I came.

I dismiss the onlookers (who were ABSOLUTELY NO HELP), throw the screaming baby into the car, threaten the other two that if they did not cooperate and buckle in that instant they didn't want to know what the consequences would be and we flew out of that place like a bat out of hell.

And I haven't taken them all back since.

I can't lie. I'm scarred. My once safe haven is now in a recurring nightmare I have.