Manic Mommy Sunday

All day Mana was working on taxes to bring to his account tomorrow, so I was on kid duty all day. After Mason's nap, I took the kids on an "adventure" - as Zander likes to say. First we went to Petco. They both loved looking at all the pets. Mason shrieked several times - with excitement, not fear, so that was okay. Since they were so good, I decided to stop at Joann's to pick up a few sale items. We were only there about 10-15 minutes and were ready to head to the checkout (front of the store) when Zander said, "Mommy, I have to go potty." I thought 'okay, I can do this. I can help Zander pull his pants up and down if he needs it and hold Mason at the same time.' So, we headed to the bathroom area (back of the store, of course) and I was happy to see a "family bathroom". Perfect! So, the 3 of us headed in to the family bathroom. Zander was able to pull his pants down by himself, great. I lifted up the seat and Zander stepped up to the toilet, but he wasn't quite tall enough. He looked at me with a puzzled look and then said, "I can just hold it up" as he lifted his "stuff" almost onto the toilet rim. And I said, "No, no! That's so gross. Stop, don't do that!" During this whole bathroom experience, I kept thinking, 'If Mana was a fly on the wall, he would be cringing big time.' I thought about how I could get Zander up higher - and how to keep Mason off the dirty public bathroom floor. Being a family bathroom, it was a large room with a chair. So, I put Mason on the chair with a sippy cup of juice...and held Zander up. Of course, he couldn't/wouldn't go. So, we decided to head to the registers and head home.

As we were heading out the doors (paid already, thank goodness), Zander said, "I have to go potty real bad." After asking him several times if he was sure, we headed to the back of the store, again. This time the family bathroom was occupied so we went to the main women's restroom. Once again, Zander was too short for the toilet, so I had him stand on my feet this time - just enough to get him over the rim without touching. Meanwhile, I put my jacket on the floor for Mason to sit on and kept him occupied with a sippy cup. After a few minutes, Zander still could not go, so we left. He made it home just fine, thank goodness.

Oh, and did I mention that the bathrooms were about 85 degrees inside. Something was obviously wrong with their thermostat. It was like a suana. I came out sweating, as did the boys. This didn't help the whole situation.

As I'm writing this, I just thought of the fact that I could have used the chair (that Mason used) in the family bathroom, as a stepstool for Zander. It would have been very high, but it would have worked. Next time, next time.

I'm still all for having a fully potty-trained kid versus diapers, but there are a whole new set of challenges. Makes life interesting, I guess.