Abigail's Birthday (Part 2)

As promised although a little later than I'd hoped here's part two :)

We finally make our way into the grocery store. In the foyer of the store, I grab a cart and put Angel in the big part and Abigail in the little seat. We then don't make it through the next set of doors before Abigail begins to climb out of the little seat, into my arms, and then climb down the front of my body right onto the floor. "I want walk" She says in her cute little two year old voice. Rather than fight it I just let her walk. It's slower in the store so I figure I won't lose her in any crowds.

 First things first as we walk in the door, Angel says "Can I have a cookie, Mommy?" I tell her that we of course can.

Just as soon as little Abigail's two year old ears hear this she starts yelling "Cookie! Cookie! I want Cookie! Want one!! Want one! Coookie!! Mommy! Mommy! Mama! Mama! Mom! Mommy! Mommmmmmmyyyyy Cooookiieee!!..." That continues right up until the cookie is in her hand.

And now after being at the grocery store for over 30 minutes and cookies in hand I can begin shopping. I pull out my list and get right to work starting in the bakery section and working my way down trying to be patient as little Abigail chews on a cookie, while staring into space, and walking three steps... five steps... 10 steps... behin... wait! Where did she go?? Where is she??

"Abigail?!?!"

There's really not too many people in the store, and I'm able to successfully follow her cookie crumbs to a few isles over. I grab her and what I need from that isle. "Out!" She screams as I hold her over my shoulder like a sack of potatoes. "I want out!!" She manages to wiggle her way down. "Abigail, stay with me. ok?" She gives me that little mischievousness grin of hers, turns around... and runs!

Meanwhile Angel is still in the cart... being.. Angel.

I run out of the isle we are in and to the main isle between the registers and the groceries. I'm standing at isle 2. I look down and she's at isle 12!! Luckily for me all the employees at this store know me and know my kids, and I see one of them reach out for her. She giggles and slides right past their grasp. Now me and another employee are chasing my two year old around the store. Once she is finally in my arms again she starts wigging her way back to the floor. I knew this wasn't going to work out. She's two now. She talks now, and she understands now, so I got down and held her face so her eyes met mine "Abigail." I said in my mommy means business voice "You have to stay with me or you have to ride with big sister! Do you understand me?"

Abigail replied with "bugabuga abba abba giddle giddle do do da... I... Baby... I... Know"

She then grabbed the bottom of the cart and said "push, Ad-jole(Angel)" Now we are getting somewhere. For the next 5-10 minutes things were working out great. Abigail is helping push, but then she decides to help me shop! She started grabbing anything she could get her hands on to throw onto Angel! "Abigail, we don't need that! Abigail! Put that back!" Each time saying "I want this!" Of course she was grabbing weird things too like olive oil and corn starch...

We do finally make it through shopping, but our trip is not yet over. We still have to wait for Cory. After we had the groceries in the car we had just a minute or so before Cory got off work. I knew we could freely walk around the store now and I could keep a really great eye on her. Unfortunately instead of a nice stroll through the store it turned into "Abigail! Stop! No! Put that down! Don't you run from me!!"

After about 10 minutes of that I thought it might be best to sit in the break room with some coloring books and crayons. Once we sat down Abigail found a back of chips and starts chomping away. I have no idea who they belonged to, but hey, they left a half full back of chips sitting on the break room table!

Angel starts coloring saying "Look at my pretty picture mommy!" Abigail starts scribbling very harshly on her paper and says "Adigadiga bebo bee bo... pretty! Mommy! Loook! Mommy! SEE??" I assure them they are both gorgeous pictures. Now that it's calmed down I decide to play a game on my phone while we wait. Just as my game loads I hear Angel say "Mommy! Abigail is eating a crayon! I look up and see little specs of black around her mouth and all over her tongue as she's spitting and spewing black crayon particles. I get up to grab a wet napkin to clean her up and while I've stepped away I look back back at the table only to find black scribbles all over the table!

Ok.. time to put the crayons away and leave the break room!

We head towards the bakery to see how my brother is doing. While I'm chatting, Angel is looking at cakes, and Abigail has made a fortress of solitude underneath the bakery display tables. She sits and watched the customers pick out bread and sweet treats. I've got a nice spot where I can stand and chat while watching her... We stayed there for the next 20 minutes while we waited for daddy... Yes.. my baby has turned... two...

Abigail's Birthday (Part 1)

I have two children. Angel who is six and in the first grade and Abigail who turned two yesterday. We had a small get together for her the day before yesterday with just a few family members to enjoy each others company and celebrate her bouncing through another year... Now anyone who has ever read any of my blogs where I mention Abigail you should know by now what I mean when I say bouncy...

Before I continue let me bring up my little Angel. When she was two we lived in a tourist trap of a community thanks to our beautiful beaches and almost each day we'd go to our local grocery store where little Angel would buy herself a banana and walk around the store eating it so calmly by my side. Everyone would great her and say hello. Most times my shy little Angel would hide behind my leg. After she would finish her banana she would hold on the the peel until we were near a trash can where she would reach up on her toes to dispose of it... I always heard of this saying called "the terrible twos" but in 2008 I thought this saying to be only a rumor.. and then.. well.. did I mention yesterday Abigail turned two??

Due to a few past shopping experiences I very VERY rarely take Abigail with me to the grocery store..  or really ANYWHERE for that matter..

While I once had my whole week organized and down to a science almost about how much money I spent and where I spent it, what days and how (based on sales, my budget and Abigail's nap schedule), I recently started back to work decorating cakes professionally for a very well established bakery in my area. This of course completely changed my typical routine... and hers... Now I shop when and where I have the time and energy to.

Yesterday after I got off work I came home only to realize that my cabinets were bare.  Because of Abigail's birthday get together, I had forgotten to do my grocery shopping over the weekend like I would have typically done, so I decided that once Angel got off the bus we would go to the store. This plan seemed fine, so I got Abigail all ready to go and we waited on the porch. My brother, Marc, who is car-less and staying with me right now came out to see if he could get a ride to work. (He just started working at the same grocery store as my husband, Cory) Sure, of course. We could all ride together and since Cory is getting off the same time that Marc is going in I'll just ride home with Cory. Angel gets off the bus. We load up and all is well.

When we get to the store I look behind me and see not one, but two sleeping children. Angel I knew wouldn't be a problem, but Abigail loves her sleep and gets very angry when you wake her up. I did what I had to do though. With Marc immediately gone to get ready for work I gently pick up Abigail and rest her head on my shoulder. The car door woke up Angel who simply climbed out and began walking to the front door.

Abigail's eyes open and she sees her big sister walking beside us. She starts squirming her little body out from my arms yelling "out! out!" I put her down on the side walk and look and Angel who is walking... bare foot...

"Angel, where are your shoes??" I asked
"I took them off in the car" She said
"You have to wear shoes. Go get them. Abigail stay here with us."

As Angel heads back to get her shoes I look up and see Abigail standing there staring at me with her most adorable mischievousness grin. Her body slowly turning the other direction. "Don't you run, Abigail!" I yell.

"Mommy, don't leave me!" Angel says

"I'm not! get your shoes! Abigail! Get back here!"

So I'm chasing Abigail while keeping my head turned towards Angel. I grab her and run back to Angel who gets her shoes. "Mommy let's find a bench for me to sit on to put on my shoes" she says. I'm fine with that. I'm patient. Let's do that. I'm holding Abigail who has now wiggled so much that I'm holding her side ways on my hip with my arm around her waste. Her feet are dangling behind me. Her little hands are clutching at my arm and she is yelling "Out! Out!" (That's her way of saying put me down).. Let me point out that we haven't even made it into the front door yet!

Abigail manages to wiggle out of my arms and takes off.. I start to chase her as Angel yells "Mommy! Wait! Mommy wait for me!"

"Hurry, Angel! I've got to get your sister!!"

and now that Abigail is waking up for the morning this story will be continued later... at nap time...