Parenting Story

Parenting Story

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Shopping with children- Mission Impossible

I convinced my family this week that they should come to Davenport to see me and do a little shopping. They left Dubuque around 9:30 am, so we met at the mall at about 11. When I arrived my sister was feeding her youngest, 6 month old Landon, so we sat down in the food court and visited while he ate. Soon after he was done eating, all of the girls needed a potty break. While we took a potty break, my brother arrived at the mall. When everyone had finished their potty break, we walked down to JCPenney. On the way, Elliot noticed that there was a US Cellular and decided to trade in his cell battery. We walked down and back while waiting for him. We then continued to JCPenney. My sister found a few dresses for her daughter Isabelle and they tried them on. By the time they finished trying on the dresses it was past 12 and the kids were getting hungry for lunch. We walked back to the cars and loaded up to go to Steak and Shake. After about 20 minute wait, we were seated. We didn't leave there until 1:30! We then returned to the mall to drop my brother off at his car so he could go home. We unloaded the kids and went back into the mall. A few of us took potty breaks on the way into the mall. By the time we made it to our next destination several more had to go potty and Landon was hungry again. Courtney made a bottle while I shopped. Then mom fed Landon while Courtney and I both shopped. The kids got restless, so I took them down a dead hallway and let them run races up and down the hallway so Courtney could shop in peace. By the time Courtney came out (empty handed) the girls had to go to the bathroom again. The bathroom was full and 2 of them had accidents in their pants before a stall opened up! We cleaned up and headed to the other end of the mall for Whitey's ice cream, but the line was too long, so we decided to just leave and find ice cream elsewhere. We got back in the car and drove to Whitey's, got the kids back out and ordered our ice cream. Aidan, my son, fell while waiting for our order and bit his lip. We finally got our orders and sat down to eat and the kids fought over sharing their milkshakes. When everyone was finished we decided to go to Kohl's. Another trip to the bathroom and then we made a trip around the store. Afterward we walked down to Gordman's. Mom watched the kids while Courtney and I looked and tried on a few things. We left the store with nothing after retrieving kids from the bathroom. By this time the kids were over tired and crabby, so we said our goodbyes, parted ways and headed home. The final outcome of our shopping trip looked something like this:
Bathroom breaks: 27
Diaper Changes: 4
Feedings: 2
Purchases: 0
Afternoon spent with family: Priceless!

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