Fiasco

Do you ever have one of those days where everything is so off you just know from the very beginning it is going to be a fiasco? We had such a day this past Wednesday.

Nate took the day off of work to help me accomplish the major task of getting the baby room ready. This is a major task because it required taking apart a bed, putting up the crib, moving the changing table to the new room, and cleaning. And not only have we planned to use this extra room as the baby room, it is also our new office. So we had to purchase a desk and storage cupboard for the room, which meant a trip to one of our favorite-but-not-so-great-places-to-take-Luxie, IKEA.

We decided to get up at 8 and get there by 9 to get the day off and running. Unfortunately they didnt open until 10, so we arrived shortly after and began the not-so-kid-friendly (Im liking the dashes today) task of "looking". Luxie is so very antsy these days and hates to sit much at all in the cart so we are constantly negotiating with her for blocks of time to sit patiently. "You can get out if you stay with mommy and daddy. But if you run off you are getting right back in the cart, ok?" The "staying with mommy and daddy" lasts all of 2 minutes and then we are the parents we hoped never to be. "LUXIE! Get back here!" "You must stay HERE, not run off!" as she zooms into traffic interrupting the flow of carts and busy shoppers. Finally she is thrown back in the cart with a wail and gnashing of teeth and we are subjected to whines and the "skip in the record" routine, "Can I walk?" "Can I walk?" "Can I walk?"

Around 11:30 I began to be concerned because not only had she been shopping for an hour and a half, an unheard of request for a 2 1/2 year old, but lunch time was approaching and we had yet to get thru the pick up line. Nate got in line to pay and I decided to try a hot dog for her lunch, which was silly to begin with because right now her full diet revolves around carbs-bread, pasta, and chips/sweets. That's all she's willing to eat. But I thought she just might be hungry enough to go for it. No, once again mommy was a bit too optimistic. (By the way, I had offered her a plethera of snacks only to be shot down, so it's not as if I had come unprepared!)

At this point it's about 11:45 and Luxie has had it. She's done shopping, she's mid tantrum because she is bored and hungry, and Nate has just finished paying and is approaching the "pick up" line. I walk to him with my bawling pre-schooler and ask for the keys to go sit in the car. We waited for 20 minutes for Nate to join us. Finally he emerged from the store but empty handed! They still had not gotten to his order, so we drove around the side of the building to the actual loading area and he went in for another 10 minutes before finally exiting with our stuff. Only one problem...it appeared to be too big to fit in the van!

So at 12:30 Nate and his 8 months pregnant wife began the always entertaining process of trying to load huge pieces of furniture into/on top of/wherever it will fit in the van in the hot November sun while other loaders looked on in shock and dismay. And while Luxie sat strapped in her car seat (for over 30 minutes now) reminding us of how hot and how hungry she was. After working for at least 10 minutes on tying down the huge desk to the top of the van, Nate errupted into a fit of "this is RIDICULOUS! It isnt going to STAY! We cant do this! It's coming down! It's GOT TO COME DOWN!" We were both feeling the pressure and growing more and more frustrated as time wore on. He used his "Im more than irritated" pull down to get it back on the ground and began shoving it with all his might into the van while I, being the ever supportive wife, shouted from the sidelines "You cant do that! It's not going to fit!"

Luxie errupted into tears as the desk top was angled over her head and onto the seat next to her, "I cant see! I cant see!" Nate said "It's fine!" While I, having lost all sense of reason, yelled out, "I am not driving home with this propped up over her head!" and proceded to climb into the back end of the van, behind the back seat, close myself in, and grab hold of the desk top. (For the record, it was safe--Nate was in no way endangering Luxie and would never have even tried to drive had he thought there was any danger.) So there I was 8 months pregnant crammed into the back end of the van with Nate yelling, "Get out of there! Im not driving with you crammed into the back end! That's even more dangerous than having the desk in here! Get back up here! You are pregnant for Pete's sake!" I refused and so we took off, for about 3 blocks, with Luxie crying, me protesting from the back end, feeling more and more ridiculous for getting back there to begin with, and Nate reminding me just how ridiculous it really was. Finally he pulled over and said, "That's it. Im not driving until you get up here." And without protest I muttered, "Can you come let me out."

So we drove home in silence around 1:00, Luxie asleep without lunch, me watching on full mom alert for any dangers or troubles with the huge desk, and Nate getting us safely home.

Upon arrival we finally unloaded and got started on the main task at hand, building the pieces we had purchased. After the seriously eventful morning we had had, we actually managed to get the crib, changing table, storage piece, and desk put together and in some sense of order before dinner. We were completely exhausted, and I suppose that helped us to avoid further spats and quarrels as the day wore on. But in our books this one gets chalked up to one fiasco of a day!