Fiasco at Costco

Last week, I wrote a somewhat humorous post explaining what it is like being the mom of a certain herculean 18 month old boy named Joshua. If that didn't convince you of how exhausting he can be, consider this completely true tale of our misadventures in Costco this evening.

While Scott and Sammy were off doing some father-son bonding time, the rest of us headed over to Costco to purchase a few things and eat dinner in the food court. After buying what we needed, we parked the cart so we could order our food and eat. Mika and Josh found a table in the surprisingly not busy food court while I stood in line to order. Everything was wonderful; Josh was happily entertained at the table with Mika while I kept an eye on them from line. Unfortunately, it didn't last and soon Mika was struggling to keep Josh at the table with her. Not far away, I told her to let him go and he ran over to join me in line. At this point it was my time to order. I received our food and cups and Josh and I returned to the table to set the food down. This is when things turned bad.

After dropping off the food, I headed back to the soda fountain to fill our cups. Josh was tagging along with me. Then as I turned to fill the cups, Josh bolted for the central aisle and headed for the door. Hands full, I told Mika to run after him. He got about 30 feet away before she caught him. Meanwhile, with my eye on Mika and Josh, I headed back to the table to unload so I could take off after them.

As I was heading towards Mika and Josh, I watched as she caught up to him and attempted to pick him up so she could carrying him back to the table. He wasn't having it and threw a fit. Unfortunately, Mika is unable to hold Josh when he throws a fit; his size and strength is too much for her. So, she put him down. In one swift motion, Josh threw himself to the ground and proceeded to throw a fit. Defeated, Mika sat down next to him, refusing to abandon her baby brother. As I am nearing them (less than 10 feet away), a lady decided to intervene. I heard her tell Mika, "Let's go find your mom." The lady had not noticed me at this point so I told her I was right there. It was then that this woman decided to start some trouble.

All of this happened over the course of just a few seconds. All of this happened while I was watching. I witnessed the entire show that my son put on. It was because of this that I knew this lady was LYING to me when she told me that my daughter had dropped my son on his head. I responded calmly, "No, she did not. He hit his head on the ground. He does it all the time." "No," she argued, "I saw her drop him so that he landed on his head." My daughter, at this point, tried to defend herself and said, "I put him down carefully." I walked away with my children and told my daughter that I believed her.

We returned to our food and ate our dinner. Josh, of course, refused all food except for the lettuce and tomato portions of the Caesar salad the three of us were sharing. He's a strange kid. All was well until we got home and he refused to walk from the car to the house. I was trying to carry in two gallons of milk so I had no hands to pick him up. So, he threw himself on the ground and screamed until I put the milk down on the porch and returned for him. I sat him down in the living room where he again screamed while I retrieved the milk from the porch and put it in the refrigerated. Then I sat down and grabbed the nursing pillow. Seeing the nursing pillow, his legs began to work again and dutifully carried his little body to me where I nursed him to sleep.

Ahhhhh....the quiet is so nice!