My Guilty Conscience

I've been feeling a bit cooped up lately, particulary during the work week. Chris and I only have one working car, so I've generally been stuck at home during the work week while on leave. Last week, the only times I left the house between Sunday afternoon and the following Friday were to go out to the mailbox or take the trash out. Thankfully, the weather on Friday was unseasonably warm, so Fiona and I were able to go for a walk in the neighborhood.

Anyhow, because I'm stuck at home on the weekdays, I try to make the most of the weekends and decided to head out to Target, despite the rain. In part I wanted to look for a pair of rain boots and stock up on a few household essentials, but I also thought it'd be a good idea to get Sam out of the house and walking around for a bit. That poor boy is so ready for spring! By the end of the weekend, he is practically bouncing off the walls and we end up dealing with frequent meltdowns as a result.

We had a nice time at the store and found both rain boots for me and a white matchbox car for Sam.* I remembered that I didn't have quite enough salsa for a recipe I was making for dinner, so I grabbed a jar from the food section before heading off to check out. We stood in a longer line for a few minutes, when a new lane opened up and the woman in front of me offered to let me go instead of her. I stepped forward and CRASH! The jar of salsa slipped out the basket I was carrying** and smashed all over the floor. I stepped out of line, made sure someone came to clean the mess up and headed back for another jar.

On the drive home, the questions began:

You dropped the jar? It fell out? It broke on the floor? It made a mess? You got it on your pants? It broke? You made a mess? We'll tell Daddy?

Sam talked about the incident for the entire drive home, question after question after question. I felt bad enough about dropping the jar as it was, but by the time we got home I was mortified. And, of course, true to his word, Sam went straight to Chris and told him that I had "made a mess." Sigh...

*On the way to Target Sam pointed at the corner party store and asked if that's where we were going. I told him no, we were going to a different store. He replied: "A little cars for little boys store?"

**I opted for a basket instead of a cart because Sam has decided that he likes to push the cart. If he'd let us help steer, this wouldn't be a problem, but he doesn't want us to put so much as a finger on the cart. As a result, we're faced with him either causing a scene when we nudge the cart in the right direction or else causing a traffic jam as he struggles to guide the cart through the store. So yeah, a basket is easiest in many cases.