Whoa, Show White! This Isn't Jerry Springer!

After playing outside much of the morning, we took the kids to our favorite family-owned Greek place (the one where no one complains when Luca dances in the middle of the restaurant and Rohan circles each table a minimum of 3 times). Luca celebrated the outing by wearing a Snow White dress-up dress and Barbie heels her buddy gave her a few days ago. Next door is a thrift shop we've never visited, run by volunteers of 4 local churches. I went in with one goal: to find glass jars to replace our plastic cups. We were successful (more on that in another post), but as we were wrapping up our shopping Rohan's diaper started to smell in a way that cannot be human. Darrick took him to the car, changed him, and loaded him in, then pulled up out front so Luca and I could hop into the car with the a/c already running. And herein is where the Fatal Mistake of the Day occured.

Darrick DARED to put Rohan in the carseat behind where I would be sitting. As we approached the car, Luca said to me, "I want to sit by you." which in Luca-land means she wants the carseat behind my seat. She's very into symmetry, that kid, and so prefers for 'all the girls' to sit on one side of the car and 'all the boys' to sit on the other. This was impossible, and I tried to quickly inform her of such impossibility while getting her into the car before the inevitable meltdown. I was not successful. As soon as she realized she was not getting her way, the tears started, and they continued all the way home (thankfully less than 3 miles), punctuated by screeching and whining. Charming.

As we pulled into the driveway, I looked over at Darrick and said, "I should probably get her out so she won't throw a fit." but he decided she was already throwing a fit so what was the harm?

The harm, it seems, was great in her little mind. As he opened the door and began to unbuckle her, her crying hit a fever pitch. She started to screech, "I want MAMA TO GET ME!!!!" over and over, and Darrick ignored and picked her up out of the car and set her in the grass next to the driveway. As I got Rohan out of his seat, I saw Luca lurch back toward the car door and attempt to climb back in so that I could go around and get her out. Darrick stopped her, and she turned around, removed her pink and purple Barbie heel, and swung it in his direction.

"Whoa, Snow White...this isn't Jerry Springer!" Darrick responded.

And this is where I lost it and just started laughing. I managed to disguise my laughter and get Luca inside. We took Rohan up for his nap and then I came down and got Luca calmed down and ready for hers. And then I sent her over to apologize for trying to hit Daddy with a shoe...and as I said it I completely lost my cool and started laughing so hard tears were streaming down my face. There are some times when parenting a toddler is so ridiculous that you have no choice but to laugh.