Our Most Recent Misadventures

In case you hadn't noticed, it is flipping hot outside. We have been keeping our cool by running errands in the morning and hanging out indoors every afternoon. I never thought I'd say this, but I love to run errands with Charlotte and Jensen. It has gotten to the point that (despite having to deal with the double stroller + 110-degree temps) when I shop by myself, it's actually kind of boring. Plus, they love to shop with mommy and are usually on pretty good behavior.

Yes, this is a bath mat. She cuddled with it while shopping.

 That said, we've had a few exceptions lately. The first one occurred during a morning trip to Target. As we checked out and began to head towards the door, I looked at Charlie and noticed that her face was red. As I was trying to figure out what might be wrong, she put an end to my wondering and projectile-vomited strawberries all over the floor of Target.

I've got to be honest, I briefly considered either a) finding an employee to notify about the, er, mess or b) hightailing it outta there and not looking back. However, I took the high road and unwrapped my just-purchased paper towels and cleaned up the mess myself. (Two other things of note: Charlotte wasn't sick...we actually suspect she has an allergy to strawberries. Also, that same morning I also dealt with a blowout poopy diaper (Jensen) and pee on the floor of our foyer (also Jensen). It was quite a day!).

In other shopping misadventures, we had a double meltdown at Kohl's last Saturday when Charlotte and Jensen were approached by a (very friendly) woman in a wheelchair. I guess they'd never seen one before...and they were not fans, as everyone who was at Kohl's now knows. The woman felt terrible and I felt even worse, so together we tried everything to calm them down (at one point the woman offered Charlie her cell phone, which Charlie pushed away in a most dramatic fashion). It was not a pretty sight but eventually I got them calmed down enough to check out and make it to the car without permanently damaging anyone's hearing (my pride is another story).

Meltdowns aside, Mr. Dude is one laid-back shopper.

Probably a little too laid-back, if you ask his sister.

Speaking of shopping, I realized I never posted a picture of my Mother's Day necklace. I finally got the charms and I love it and wear it every day:

So what else have we been up to? Despite Charlotte's not-so-successful first time at the gym, we've been back twice this week. I know she needs to get used to being left places as much as I need to get used to leaving her places. Yesterday did not go so well...I could hear her shrieking from all the way down the hall the minute I was out of her line of vision, and the staff was unable to calm her down. Today went a tiny bit better...C & J were the only kiddos in the childcare center when I dropped them off, so the staff was able to give Charlotte a lot of attention and distract her when I left. I actually made it through half a spin class before they had to come and get me. That's the good news...the bad news is that the reason Charlie became upset in the first place is that her sweet little brother hit her with a toy. Really, Jensen?? I guess I should be thankful he hit his sister rather than another child! It was downhill from there for Charlie, but it was a bit of progress and I'll take it!