sigh.

Just to illustrate that it's not all champagne and caviar I will share my most frustrating parenting moment to date. Finley and I just got back from our weekly shopping trip. Normally, I love taking her along (not that I have a choice) because she smiles and waves at all the elderly people, who in turn tell me what an adorable little son I have. It's good times all around. Today however, that was not the case. From the get go Finley resisted being strapped in the cart. After asking her nicely to sit on her bottom several times, she decided to up the ante and start screaming and flailing. So I did what any normal mom would do and I grabbed the nearest box of food and opened it in hopes of distracting her out of the worlds largest (and most embarrassing) tantrum. She took a few bites of the organic granola bar and sent it flying across the isle. Okay, deep breath. How about the binky? That went flying too. It became clear that this fit was going to happen despite my best efforts so I started to rush through my shopping (thus forgetting several key items). It got real ugly. She reached her go-go gadget arms into the cart and started throwing food onto the floor. Black Cherry yogurt was everywhere. Deep breath. Talk to her calmly and sternly. Don't worry about all the people staring at us like I have 6 arms. Another carton of yogurt explodes on the floor. Don't cry. Don't cry. It's not like people have never seen a tantrum before. Eventually we made it to the check out line. Finley distracted herself flirting with the little boy in front of us. I made chit chat with the lady checking us out and by the time we left the store my blood pressure was back down in a healthy range. I loaded Finley in her seat and surrounded her with our bags of groceries. In the 15 seconds that it took to return the shopping cart, Finley pulled out the lettuce and shredded it all over the back seat. I probably should have gotten mad, especially given her behavior earlier. But, I just decided to laugh. She had lettuce hanging out of her mouth and she gave me a look like, "What? What are you looking at? This is normal isn't it?" In that moment I just had to give in to the humor of it all. After calling Brian to share in the hilarity, Finley and I had a nice chat, she signed "sorry" and I quickly forgot all about the world's largest tantrum. I don't suggest addressing every behavior problem by making light of it. That would be irresponsible. But sometimes you just have to. At least I do.