things that are just a bad idea

Today Vivi and I were sitting on the couch talking. She told me that Papa said he did not like it when she sat on the back pillows (like she happened to be doing at that moment.) I said that I thought that was probably a good idea. She said that Papa thought it was a bad idea. To which I realized my flawed response. I agreed with her (and Papa) that it was a bad idea but that it is always a good idea to listen to her Papa.

Today, I should have listened to her Papa. We were out of a few crucial groceries and I thought I'll just wrangle the kids and do a "quick" trip to the market. His response upon hearing this was "are you sure? well, good luck to you" For the record, it's a bad idea to take 3 children under 4 to the market unless you have 2 of them sedated, heavily. Or you should find a cart that has a couple of straight jackets and continually bribe them with lots of food. I had none of this going for me as we went right after breakfast...not snack time yet. And the kid's cart (the one that looks like a little car that allows them to "drive" around the aisles) it did not have working straps and my little houdinis would have figured them out even if they did since they are only lap belts. So my entire trip was spent trying to get them to stay in the cart, not dance around the cart, or climb on the car or hang to the side only to get smashed by a display. (Vivi is okay, by the way, but my hope is that she now knows to keep her hands etc. inside the ride.) The fun filled trip ended in my shamefully cutting my shopping short with two girls in full meltdown and one of them bleeding from the mouth. Next time I'm giving them the list and just let them have run of the place. Honestly, who can think under such pressure? At least I did get the crucial diapers, juice and bananas. Now the monkeys can be happy.