Ring ring!!!!

I get asked a lot what my "favorite age/phase" is so far.

I can never answer this. I'm enjoying all three of my kids so much right now.

Maddox is running all over the house and is almost always happy. His giggle could solve all the world's problems. He's also still really cuddly - which is fun and interesting now that my belly is so big.

Sloane is at the age where she says everything she thinks. She takes everything very literally. I'm a Diet Pepsi drinker, but I do make myself drink TONS of water in order to "support" my habit. When I say tons, I mean somewhere between 150 - 200oz of water a day. The water and the Diet Pepsi, plus the fact that this is my 4th pregnancy in FIVE years, means that I take LOTS of potty breaks. Every time Sloane sees me on my feet she asks, "Potty break again Mama?" It just kills me that even she has noticed!

Holynd is 4 going on 24. She asks questions about everything. She's very responsible and loves to act grown up. A couple of weeks ago, she came to me and said she wanted a new Repunzel Barbie. Her's had come up missing and she wanted another one. We do let Holynd have a little "half-Birthday" celebration during the summer. Having a Christmas time birthday can be rough. However, she wanted the barbie sooner rather then later. I told her she could earn an "allowance" by helping me with some chores on Cleaning Day. Holynd and Sloane do have chores that they're already responsible for,  (and they complain about every time they have to do them) but I told Holynd she'd have to do extra work. She agreed. Monday rolled around - she helped me clean all three bathrooms and helped Matt take out all the garbage's. Surprisingly enough, she did it happily.

I gave her 11 dollars for the help.

Matt sat her down and explained that she would have to pay tithing on the money. She seemed ok with the concept.

Sunday came, she cheerfully took her tithing up to the Bishop.

The next day, we went to Target to find her something to buy.

This is where the story takes a turn. I have been blessed with wonderful kids. We go out almost everyday and very rarely do I ever have a hard time with any of them - especially Maddox! However, this day was like the Perfect Storm of bad days.

I had not slept.

Maddox was up most of the night with teething issues and when he finally settled down - I couldn't settle down. Little One was up in my ribs, I was having STUPID contractions and just could not get myself to fall back to sleep.

However, Monday is still Cleaning Day, so I got up early and got to work. By the time noon rolled around, I was overly exhausted. Really. I could have fallen asleep standing up. But, I had promised Holynd we would go to Target that day and I didn't want to let her down.

"My kids are usually really easy" I remember thinking....

Holynd was so excited she talked my ear off all the way to Target. I wasn't being a great mom because, by the time we got there, I wasn't really listening to her anymore. We got into the store fine, stopped to look at the little baby things, everyone was happy and riding in the cart.

Then things went south.

I let Holynd and Sloane out of the cart to look at toys. Maddox, seeing this, immediately got restless because he wanted to be doing what his sisters were doing. I thought we'd be back there maybe 10 minutes at the most. Afterall, Holynd had already said she wanted a Repunzel barbie.

I showed Holynd the Repunzel barbie. She looked it over and said, "Hmmm... Mama, I'm really excited about my money. Is it ok if I keep looking?" She asked so sweetly that even in my semi-incoherent state I couldn't say no. "Sure. Keep looking".

This is the moment where I learned that Holynd is as indecisive as I am. She literally looked at every toy on that aisle. EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. Now, after about 30 minutes of being stuck in one small space, Sloane and Maddox were a little bored. They eventually found little play carts and began pushing them all over the aisle. 10 more minutes went by and Maddox decided that staying in the aisle was overrated and took off!

Literally, full blown sprint, pushing a pink shopping cart. I'm going to be honest right here, I have probably only chased a running toddler one or two times in my life. This really hasn't happened to me all that often. My kids are usually content staying next to me when we go places.

Holynd is still standing in the barbie aisle, ringing her hands, completely distracted by the decision in front of her.

I took off to get Maddox. At this point, Sloane thought that Maddox's idea was a GREAT idea, but that she wanted to run in the OPPOSITE direction.

Are you kidding me?! I'm exhausted and a few days shy of 30 WEEKS PREGNANT!

I go after Maddox and after giving a warning to Sloane, Sloane ditched the cart and came running back. Maddox was not going down without a fight though. When he realized we were going back to the same ole' boring aisle, he lost it.

Full-on temper tantrum, screaming at the top of his lungs. I eventually just set him on the floor because I didn't dare put him in the cart for fear he'd fall out. I also didn't dare hold him because I was afraid I'd lose control and drop him. So, down on the floor he went, kicking and screaming and carrying on.

I was stumped. We've dealt with tantrums before, believe me, girls love to be dramatic. Matt and I have a pretty strict, if you have a tantrum - you can go work it out in your room, type of strategy. We really don't give tantrums much attention. It seems frustrating to me to try and reason with a preschooler who screaming and having a meltdown. The girls are always more then welcome to discuss the problem AFTER they've calmed down. Had one of the girls been throwing a tantrum like that, I would have thrown the child in the cart and walked straight out to the car. No warnings, no negotiations - they would have went straight to their room when they got home. However, I've never dealt with a tantrum with someone as young as Maddox. Had I walked out of the store, he wouldn't even had made connection that he was the reason we were leaving. Plus, I'd have one disappointed little girl. Luckily enough, my mothering instincts were still semi-functioning and I just knew if I could get Maddox to some different scenery, he'd be fine.

I looked at Holynd and said, "Holynd. We really need to go. What have you decided on?" She pointed at two things. A baby doll and play food to feed it with. It was over her budget, but I was desperate. "Great choice Holynd".

We left the toy section, Maddox stopped crying, everyone was back to riding in the cart.

"I did it!" I thought. It's over!

We got out to the car and everyone seemed content.

That is until.... I realized I had lost my phone.

Sigh........

"Holynd do you know where my phone is??"

"Oh yeah! It was on the floor at the store. I was too excited about spending my money to tell you."

Are you kidding me?!

Back into the store we go, we head back to the toy section. I'm walking just as fast as I can - not really searching as well as I want to. I head over to customer service, stand in the LONGEST line ever, only to be told that my phone wasn't there either.

Great.

I got everyone back out to the car. At this point, I glanced at the clock and realized Matt should be home from basketball, but might have time to help me out before needing to be back at work. By the time we got home, I was bawling.

Matt was, of course, the best husband ever. He jumped right in the car and drove us all back to Target. Me crying the whole way there. He ran in, found my phone and brought it out to me.

Then he said something that really made me realize why I love him so much.

"I think you need me to get you a Diet Coke".

Yes. I really think I need a Diet Coke.