outings, part 2

I have to admit, I was a bit overwhelmed after our first outing last Friday. It was complicated even with Mike there doing it with me. I think the extreme cold made it that much worse.

Yesterday, I did the BIG monthly grocery trip with Patrick and Leah after dropping Daniel off at preschool.

The preschool drop off/pick up is the worst part, mostly because it is annoying to have to pull 3 kids out of the car just to walk 5 feet into the building and kiss him goodbye. Patrick is an absolute dream once Daniel is gone. He loves to talk to people without Daniel beating him to it, and insists on introducing Leah to every person who walks by to oooh and ahh over her.

We did Walmart first and they were both perfect. I wore Leah in my Sleepy Wrap and she slept. I like wearing her because the carrier takes up too much room in the cart. Plus, I just like to have her close :) I was planning to just do Walmart and save Aldi for later, but they were both sooooo good and I still had an hour and a half left.

Leah started screaming at the top of her lungs and obviously begging for food before I had even started. The one downside to wearing her in the wrap is it puts her right next to the food source. Kind of hard to distract her when she is RIGHT THERE. I thought maybe once I got moving she would calm down. Ha, not so much. So I added a snack for Patrick to the cart, bought that and the 3 other items I'd managed to pick up before her hysterics started, told the nice Aldi checkout lady we'd be back, and headed back to the car.

While I was feeding her, in the front seat, 2 things occurred to me.

1) I would have come completely unglued and gone straight home if such a thing had happened when Daniel was 3 weeks old. This didn't even phase me.

2) I used to be really careful about finding an out-of-the-way spot to nurse the baby. I know it's perfectly acceptable to nurse whenever and wherever she needs to, but I was always hyperaware of making others uncomfortable, and I tried to avoid it. Now I just don't care. If my baby is hungry, I'm going to feed her. So far Leah has been fed in church, in the wrap while walking through Gordmans, in a booth at Old Chicago, etc etc etc. With 3 kids under 4, I just don't have time to worry about whether or not my feeding my baby makes other people uncomfortable anymore! Besides, I'm really good at doing it so that most people probably have no idea anyway.

Added fun - all of the dirty looks I get from old people for having her out of the house at such a young age. Hahaha.

Anyway, the moral of the story is that this IS getting easier. We have forced ourselves to get out of the house often. After my panicky trip on Friday, by Thursday I wasn't even nervous about taking all 3 out by myself. (Well, that's kind of a lie....I did drop Daniel off at school. The thought of Walmart and Aldi with all 3 does make me feel feverish, hahaha!!!)

Oh, and another thought. I HATE it when people tell me I have my hands full. That's just something you shouldn't say to people with a whole herd of small kids. ANNOYING.