Mark was away this morning, so I took the kids to Mass by myself. On my way down the stairs I said a quick prayer to everybody’s guardian angels to PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE help me get through Mass without needing to flee the room.
And the kids did do very well during Mass, but downstairs at coffee/donut time Milo took off running around the crowded room and I had to chase him down and catch him. A series of struggles ensued in which I decided that he had forfeited the right to carry a certain bag back to the car, not so much as a punishment as a practical decision: so that I would better be able to keep hold of his hand as we crossed the street. (These jerking-away-and-fleeing episodes tend to come in groups.)
So there I was, standing by the exit, struggling to get Oscar into his coat and to keep Mary Jane from falling out of the sling and to hang on to flailing Milo shrieking at the top of his lungs: "NO! I WANT TO CARRY THE BAG! I DON’T WANT TO HOLD YOUR HAND! I WILL WALK NEXT TO YOU!" and trying to find out if it was possible to carry Milo (flailing) and Mary Jane at the same time.
And along came a woman who was about to head out when she did a double take: "Can I help you get to your car?"
I looked at my screaming kids, and at Oscar glaring at me, and briefly considered whether she might turn out to be the sort who would grab my baby and run away, rejected that (she had a teenage daughter with her), and said, "Um. Thank you. Yes."
She carried Mary Jane (who snuggled right into her neck to get away from the cold) and I carried Milo (who wept the whole way) and entertained me all the way to my car with stories of how once, when she had a three-year-old girl, the daughter unbuckled her seatbelt on the highway and jumped up and grabbed her (the mom’s) hair, yanking on her head while she was driving. Then she helped me get MJ buckled into her seat while I hung on to Milo, and wished me a great day, and disappeared. I was able to get Milo and myself into the minivan, out of the wind, where I could take my time calming him down before driving home.
Angels 1, temper 0. Yes.
bearing blog 