Sometimes I feel like a circus act

There has been a new phrase in my vocabulary since becoming a mother of 2. I know that I was keenly aware that life as a singleton (ya know - mother of 1) was something to be enjoyed and treasured since it's a once in a lifetime thing. Once more kiddos come - it's never the same. And, don't get me wrong - I love the craziness that comes with these 2 small people and I even enjoy tending to all their crazy and wild needs throughout the day no matter how hectic it gets.

I really do.

I mean it.

But, one thing that has struck me as funny or sad or crazy or dare I say even embarressing is that when people say to me now - "Hey- let's run to Target together", or "Come have lunch with us" - the feeling of "oh yeah - that would be fun and low-key - I'll get lots of girl chat time in" doesn't necessarily run through my head anymore.

My response is usually "are you sure?"

Not because my kids are extra wild or terribly difficult, it's just that there are 2 of them and only one of me.

I was at Target today and I believe I started perspiring at one point because of the chaos that was ensuing. Little Girl was hungry and I had brought her a lunch bag full of food to keep her happy on the journey. She actually had cold leftover pizza as the protein item in her lunch box and she dropped it. in the cart. face down. numerous times.

Yep - I still let her eat it.

But, I did tell her how gross that was and how many germs she just consumed.

Baby Boy started screaming about this time and needed a bottle. Oops. I didn't time this trip as great as I had hoped and things were starting to get a tad wild. I tried to keep him in the carseat and do the prop-the-bottle-thing-with-the-blanket, so that I could just casually hold it and still try to push this extremely heavy and leaning-to-one-side cart with one hand.

I tried to be graceful, however, most of the time, you would see me looking around the carseat to tell LG to pick up her pizza and then also yanking the fluffy, white, non-pizza stained Lamb hat and gloves set out of the cart that she had "borrowed" as to not soil them, and then feeding BB with the other hand, all the while using my foot to kick the cart back into the aisle since we were perpetually running into end caps left and right.

Oh - and also - LG kept asking me over and over "Have I been a good girl? Can I watch a show in the car? Am I being good now? Mommy? Mah-meeeeeeeey!!!! Am I being good? I get to watch a show! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! I get to watch a show! Right mommy? Do I get to watch a show? Am I being a good girl. Are you proud of me?"

That was SOOOO relaxing.

I think I almost laughed out loud once because I just kept thinking. What a picture we all must make. And, hey, it's not like I'm the only mom out there with 2 or more children trying to do a ginger balancing act of getting things done, keeping order, making sure all people in your cart are happy and have eaten and that they keep their hands to themselves, but I think at the time you are living it - it just sort of feels that way. Ha!

Well, I feel I must also clarify in my thoughts here that I don't mean at all to say that parenting one child is a breeze or that it doesn't have it's own set of challenges and it's only wild and crazy if you have 2 or more, because that simply isn't the case?

Can you say - ONLY person entertaining your child all day long is YOU - no siblings to break up the activities a bit? Yeah. It's so true. So - I'm with you girls. I'm with you.

Well, my circus act is home now. LG just went down for a late nap and BB is laying on my lap right now looking at me with peace in his eyes because he is being HELD. Yes. This boy likes him some human interaction.

All day and All night.

Bless him.

I've got to plan my trip to Party City now so that I can get my balloons and juggling kit to complete our look next time we head out to a public arena on one of the "amusing days" that we encounter. Yeah. That should make us look official straight from Ringling Brothers!!