Daily Embarrassment......the new normal

Now that we are full blown into the terrible 2's (clearly it should be changed to "the terrible 16months-?????" I have found that daily embarrassment set forth by my child is the new normal.

Last week Jackson and I went into Jo-Ann's to pick up a few things. Because I know that Jackson has a very limited attention span and ability to be good in stores I prepare myself to be in mommy hyper speed mode once we have entered the stores. On this visit I had everything prepared...snack-check, water-check, paci-check, books/toys-check and I went in on a mission!

Jackson did great until we reached the dreaded check-out line :(  

First of all I have no idea why every single time i go into a craft store they only EVER have 1 checkout person working. why?!?! Second of all who in their right mind writes checks for $5.00 worth of craft supplies?!?!?! Apparently in Colorado writing checks for small purchases is all the rage. After being in line for 10minutes watching Jackson start to squirm, I can tell that we only have maybeeee 5min max left before he looses it. I start digging through my arsenal of distraction items, luckily a nice lady comes in line behind us and since Jackson is SUCH a people person he finds great joy in chatting away with this lady. FINALLY it's our turn! I was so anxious about getting us out the store I didn't notice how close I had parked the cart and my grubby handed child to the gift card display. So....clearly not by any surprise to anyone, Jackson reaches his arm out and knocks over the entire gift card display. I'd say probably about 100 gift cards are all over the floor and the 10 people in line are staring me down while i pick up every last gift card.

This has become such a daily occurrence at this point that I don't lose my cool anymore. I simply fix whatever thing Jackson has destroyed, tell him we don't do that, apologize to the cashier and swiftly leave the store.

However, while I do keep my cool in the store I typically spend the 10min drive home crying quietly to myself from embarrassment.

I explain these occurrences to Jesse and how difficult they are but I don't think he truly understood until Jackson gave him a good taste of it in Costco & Walmart this week. Jackson's tantrums have recently turned from general grunts and jibber jabber of frustration to blood curdling screams. Jackson in all his glory let out the biggest one yet at the entrance of Costco a few days ago....so loud and sudden that people in the bakery section at the very back of costco all the way down to where we were at the entrance turned and starred. Oh yes...I wanted to pull my hood over my face and lay down on the floor in the fetal position. But a last I am 26 and not 2 so we kept moving and about 3min later Jackson was just fine. The look on Jesse's face was priceless though....a complete deer in headlights :) For a moment it did feel good to have Jesse there with me though sharing in the embarrassment.

For now we will limit our outings and hope that this intense stage will pass soon!