One of those Moments. . .

Today I took Andersen and Kate to a fabric store. Shortly after getting there, Kate started fussing, and I knew her time was ticking. Andersen continued to hide in and around every bolt of fabric. To say the least, I was ready to get out of there when I got to the check-out stand.

After turning in coupons and reviewing my receipt, I realized that I hadn't paid for a big piece of fabric. By this time, Kate was outright crying, but I asked the store clerk to help me figure things out so I knew I had paid the right amount. She spent a few minutes looking, then called another lady up to the front. By this time, there were about 8 other people in line. . . just waiting for me to finish. During all this, Andersen went around the corner of the counter and was looking at the candy. A lady came up to me and said with a smile, "just so you know, your little boy is doing some creative shopping". Uh oh--with Andersen, that could mean ANYTHING!

I quickly came around the corner to find him sticking suckers in all of his 6 pants pockets, one at a time. He had 9 suckers in the pockets so far, with two in each hand, trying to stuff them in too.

All 8 people in line had eyes on me, Kate was crying in the shopping cart loud enough for the world to hear, and the store worker was yelling, "where did that woman go?" I'm laughing as I write, but it wasn't too funny then.

I got down to Andersen's eye level and asked him to put the suckers back on the shelf. His response wasn't great, and we had a few moments of quiet confrontation. I ended up picking him up and removing him from the suckers, quickly paid for my things, along with a bag of reces pieces, and was glad to get out of the store.

Andersen was glad to get a treat in the car. Half way home, he yelled from the back seat, "mom--something is in my nose".

What would motivate a 3-year-old boy to stuff reces pieces in his nose? I'll never know. It took a few hard and long blows to get them out, and he's fine now.

As I tucked him in bed tonight (much earlier than usual--for my sanity), we had a good talk about stealing and not taking things that don't belong to us, paying for store items first, and why it's not good to push things up our noses.

As busy and mischievous as he is, I still just love his little personality. He adds color to my days and I couldn't imagine being a mom without him. I LOVE HIM!