Sticky Blue Slush and the Sleep Deprived

Today was "one of those days." I should have known it would be. All three boys were up until almost 10 o'clock while John and I ignored the kiddos' circadian rhythm cycle in exchange for a few rounds of Spades with friends. We very rarely do this, but we had no agenda this morning, and wanted to have a little fun with our friends. Alas, you reap what you sow. Well at least I reaped what we sowed. There is a reason my children sleep for 12 hours at night.

Usually the mall is a fun place to go for a few hours. Play on the playland, ride the carousel, eat a little ice-cream, maybe a little dinner. We tried to do those things, but today everything turned into an emotionally tumultuous disaster. Aaron couldn't keep his hands to himself, bugging Andrew until threatened with consequences. Then he started to bug Sammy. His main goal appeared to be preventing his brothers from playing on their animal of choice. This was not acceptable to Sammy who began hitting Aaron, which then resulted in retaliation from Aaron, and may have turned into an all-out play-area brawl if I hadn't stepped in and physically carried them both out of there.

Attempt #2 for a good time: Ice cream! (Okay, so looking back, that was rewarding bad behavior...but I was just trying to salvage this trip if possible, and didn't really want to entertain them at home) Anyway, we walk to Dairy Queen, which is unfortunately at the opposite end of the mall and I have one of those umbrella strollers (made for parents much shorter than myself).... We were just going to get ice cream, but then the boys saw the hotdogs and hamburgers and decided they wanted dinner. Okay. Then I saw the "kids meals," with Icee type drinks. I figure I will surprise them with some cool blue raspberry drinks...what a cool mom I am! "Why didn't you get me the green one Mom?" Long story short, one of the blue drinks flies (accidently) across the table and lands in the lap of Andrew, sitting in his previously green stroller. Now the only child who had not been whining, teasing, or complaining is wet, cold, blue, and crying.

After all of that, I still got them ice cream (it came with the kids meals!). So they eat their chocolate dipped Dillybars, but the entire time, Andrew is crying because HE wanted an ice cream bar, not an ice cream bowl (and he is still cold, wet, sticky, and blue). Then Sammy sees a lady with a light blue head covering and shouts out, pointing, "Look Mommy!! It's Mary! She looks like Mary!" So while I am trying to discretely let him know that it is NOT Mary, and that he should never point at anyone, Aaron seems to YELL, "Mommy, WE don't dress like that!" To which I once again attempted a discrete conversation. My only comfort is that the two women were speaking to each other in another language and may not have understood? yeah right.

After Sammy's outburst, he decides it is time for wind sprints in the mall. He runs from the table, to the directory in the middle of the mall, and then back again, all with his shoes on the wrong feet. It was actually a quite humorous sight. Aaron, of course, decides to join him. At this point, I have lost all semblance of control, which was obvious to a very nice grandmother watching the whole drama (with her well-mannered granddaughters). I must have been quite the spectacle, mopping up ice cream bars (long deserted), dirty faces, and a sticky blue stroller (and it's passenger), all while throwing out random threats of violence (well, not so violent) to oblivious recipients. The nice grandma volunteered to clean it up for me. I think it was her nice way of saying "Go get those kids under control before it gets any worse!!" I thanked her, cleaned up a little more, and then got everything and everyone ready to go home.

As we are walking back to the car (once again, at the other end of the mall) Sammy is whining and complaining that we didn't go to McDonalds, and that he had TOLD me he wanted McDonald's and I had neglected that "need" of his.... I just picked him up in one arm, pushed that blastedly-short umbrella stroller with the other arm and walked as fast as I could out of that place, making sure that Aaron wasn't too far behind. I got in the car and told them that I didn't "want to hear one word" until we got home. I didn't. They both passed out within a second of putting on their seatbelts.