Mamas make mistakes too. Especially me.

This morning, at the encouragement of a friend, (hi, Nina!) I took the kids out for a Fun Day.  Fun Days are hard, because the day after the Fun Day is NOT FUN.  But Brian is out of town, and it's a beautiful day to be out and about, so I chose one of those paint your own pottery places.

Brenna and Isaac chose the exact same thing  right off, a train penny bank. Isaac has started the "train phase", so that was no suprise, but for Brenna to choose it as well surprised me. They got started, and had a blast, although Isaac gave up about half way through in favor of painting his arms instead.

Nathan meandered around the store.  Then he meandered some more.  He hemmed and he hawed, and finally I told him, "Nathan, if you don't pick something, you're going to lose the opportunity to paint."  So he chose an itty-bitty Christmas tree ornament.  Weird kid.  Thirty seconds later, when he was done with it, I told him he could pick another, and he chose a cute mug. They all had fun.

Afterwards, we went next door to a little cafe and ate lunch on the patio. Nathan was in such a goofy mood.  He was making faces at people through the windows and making the strangest comments.  He kept asking to run a lap around the large store/office complex we were in, and I repeatedly told him no.  I didn't get them drinks, because we had water in the car, so when he got thirsty and asked for a drink, I told him he could go to the car, which was within my line of vision, to get his water bottle.  Somehow he translated, "you can go get your water out of the car" to "you may run a lap through the very busy parking lot." 

I saw him walk towards the car... then he turned right...  then he disappeared behind all the other cars.  HEART ATTACK.  I grabbed Isaac and yelled for Brenna to follow, and of course Isaac spilled his chip bag and had to fuss, and Brenna had to make a big show of twisting her chip bag to save for later, and finally I got to the car, yelling all the while, but he was GONE. Isaac heard a flight of stairs callling his name, Brenna was doing a dance on the sidewalk, and I COULDN'T SEE NATHAN!

All of a sudden, I heard him calling me.  He was standing at the table we had just vacated. He had run a lap. And come back to the logical starting place when one does such a thing.  Oh, my word. Did that kid get a talking to.  I asked where he had gone, and he said he had run THROUGH THE PARKING LOT.  "Just down that row.  I looked both ways."

The talking-to recommenced. 

We covered LISTENING (he asked that I make sure he's actually listening next time.  I was like, "um, that's YOUR job, dude.  I can't make you listen!)

We covered locomotion through parking lots ("You NEVER RUN!  DO YOU HEAR ME?!  YOU NEVER RUN IN A PARKING LOT!).

We covered the relative size of six year old boys and cars.  He was inclined to argue that one.

Then we huffed our way into the car and started home.  On the way, I went through one of those intersections where there are two sets of lights, one right after the other.

I ran the second one. "SHOOT!"

As we pulled onto the freeway, this is what I hear from the backseat:

"I'm glad I'm not the only one who makes mistakes!"

"No, baby, you're not the only one who makes mistakes."

"Sometimes mamas make mistakes too!"

"Yes, mamas make lots of mistakes."

And from Brenna:  "Especially you, Mama!"