Guest Post!
So we all know Hailey is a fantastically engaging writer. I am no match for her but I, her husband Brady, have a fantastic story to tell. 🙂
Yesterday was a low key day through the morning and early afternoon. We worked a bit and got some cleaning done around the house, I made some amazing hash browns for breakfast, good times had by all. Hailey had plans to meet up with her Mom for supper and some Father’s Day shopping in the city in the evening so we thought that was a good chance to go run some errands with the kids before supper. We were still missing a few accessories/tools for our new barbecue and I was itching to go get them.
So we hit a Canadian Tire in a nearby town first and found nothing. *facepalm* I then did a little online research and found out there was only one cheap barbecue cover to match the new barbecue in the whole city, and we all know how reliable those websites are for in-stock availability, but I called that location and found out they did in fact have ONE in stock. ‘Yay!! Hold it for me please!’
We then took Hailey to have her blood drawn, but we both forgot her requisition form so that was a bust. *facepalm* And it was time to drop Hailey off for dinner with her Mom at which point I’d be flying solo with the kids for the remainder of the day.
It’s ok. I’m not scared of the kids. I actually really enjoy having the kids by myself sometimes. I like to think that as long as I can keep the kids alive by myself for at least a whole day then we can keep having kids like we’re doing. Hailey needs to be able to have breaks sometimes. ❤
So the littles and I headed to the nearest McDonalds and ordered our supper through their handy dandy app. If you haven’t tried it yet, you should. There’s an option to have them deliver your food to your vehicle in the parking lot. Like it’s the 1950s! I love it!
The kids devoured their supper and just as we started heading to the second Canadian Tire location where our barbecue cover was waiting for us, I heard those fateful words. Come on all you parents, you know the words:
Daddy!
I have to pee!
*facepalm*
It was Laela. She drank most of her water bottle between home and McDonalds. Ok, what do I do? I can’t leave the other kids in the van while I run her in, that’s how you lose your kids to social services. I can’t send her in by herself, she cant push the door open by herself.
I guess we’re all going in. Together.
*facepalm*
So I loaded Solly into a shopping cart and had the other three grab onto the cart while they walked and we headed in. The public bathroom in this particular location is placed at the end of a long, narrow hallway. Deks jumped to pump and offered to hold the door open for me as I pushed the cartload of small ones through the door and into this tiny little bathroom. Not a family bathroom. The Men’s bathroom.
So Laela heads off to the first stall with Dekker hot on her heals for the second stall where he meets a locked door and a gruff ‘Hey, someone’s in here.’ So now I’m in a tiny bathroom and with my four kids and a man I later found out was an employee of the store, evidenced by the squawk of an employee radio as we left the bathroom.
After some wrangling and convincing I got the two older boys to stand next to the cart while I went and used a urinal which happened to be about two feet in front of the stall of the employee. Very close quarters. Dekker pipes up and says ‘I’d use one of those but I can’t reach. I’ve tried at school.’
Then as far as I can remember these are the next sentences out of my mouth. Keep in mind I was midstream at the urinal this whole time.
‘Ok Deks, that’s fine you can wait for Laela.’
‘Rowan, don’t play under sink. Close that cabinet.’
‘Rowan, where are you? Don’t touch anything.’
‘Rowan, Don’t Touch THAT!!!’
Splash!
*facepalm*
Rowan had run towards the second urinal and put both hands right in the pool of “water” in the bottom.
‘Rowan…. DON’T. TOUCH. ANYTHING!’
Rowan backs up. Surprised. Rubbing his hands together, trying to dry them off.
So I quickly tried to finish up and wrangled Rowan towards the sink and washed his hands in mine as thoroughly as I possibly could. Gross. Kids are so gross sometimes. But he didn’t know any better. He’s never used a urinal.
While this was all happening Laela finished up and washed her hands as did Dekker. And of course this bathroom only had a Dyson hand deflesher, so the kids were terrified and had to use toilet paper to dry their hands. Oh well. We bounced and shimmied our way out of the bathroom and back down that tiny hallway to freedom.
I never saw that employee come out. This whole debacle was a good 5 minutes so who’s to say what was taking him so long. Probably a good book. Or he was terrified of what was going on beyond the walls of his stall. Ya that’s probably it.
Anyways, we managed to find what we needed at Canadian Tire so it wasn’t a total bust of a shopping trip. And we topped it off with a trip to Costco so the kids were happy. All in all it was a successful, albeit eventful, errand afternoon.
So there you go. *greek accent*