Before I move on to documenting the three novel events that I had today, I need to make sure that one very important fact be stated for the record: I love being a mother. In this blog, I have written about loving moments with my son and mindful moments with my daughter. And these have been some of my favorite posts... But here's a warning... Today's post is probably going to be just a little bit different!
First, let me start by saying that today I witnessed yet another novel experience plan go wrong. A miscommunication between myself and my husband led us to a different unexplored nature preserve than I had planned for. As the forest path led to a small wooden walkway built on top of a bog, a stroller was not an option. Therefore, both of my children experienced milestone novel experiences: Liam had his first long nature walk without an optional method of transport available and Gracie had her first ever walk in the woods strapped snugly into the front pack.
Our walk to the end of the pathway went off without a hitch. The weather was gorgeous, Liam was cooperative and excited, and Gracie calmly took her surroundings in with an air of fascination. On our walk back to the car, I was congratulating myself for teaching my children about nature, and exercise, and novelty seeking... and then novelty hell broke loose!
It started with Gracie blowing out her diaper in the front pack: Novel Experience Number One. Now, when I say blowing out, I mean blowing out. There was baby poop EVERYWHERE, she was in full meltdown mode... and we had left her just-in-case outfit in the car. Thankfully, by the time this happened we were relatively close to the end of the path and shouldn't have had more than a five minute walk... If Liam had not have chosen this very minute to start fighting us about staying on the path, which put him in full meltdown mode as well...
So with two children screaming in cacophonous unison, one covered in her own feces, the other periodically sitting on the muddy path and refusing to move, we slowly proceeded down the pathway, passing the other hikers who had come out on this beautiful spring day in search of a peaceful walk in the woods.
As we trudged on at a snail's pace, it became clear that my poopy little wonder was needing to eat... now! So, while sending up a little prayer that this would not be the moment a group of teenage boys would meet us on the path, I "pulled off" the trail to "discretely" nurse my hungry little girl... with my son screaming for his Mama the whole time. Breastfeeding in the woods: Novel Experience Number Two.
FINALLY, we made it back to the car. There were tears to be wiped away, diapers and clothes to be changed, and cooperation to be bought with stickers. However, eventually everyone was strapped into their seats and we were on our way to experience Novel Experience Number Three.
In hindsight, dear reader, I know that I have learned an important Mother-Of-A-Two-Year-Old lesson... Never take your child out to a nice dinner after a day of physical activity... even if they nap beforehand... even if they had an immaculate track record of good restaurant behavior before they turned two... and particularly if you have not been to said restaurant before to scope out it's child-friendliness factors.
When we pulled into the restaurant parking lot following the 45 minute drive, we had two sleeping babies in the backseat of the car, one of whom needed to be woken up so that we could make our reservation time. As my angelic sleeping toddler transformed himself into a fully awake little monster I knew that we were in trouble. While he had had a normal amount of food and rest since our walk, I had not factored the amount of energy he had expended walking on his own on an uneven path for at least a mile... Before I had fully realized what I had gotten myself into, I was carrying an exhausted two-year-old with low blood sugar through an adult-filled, quiet dining room to the table furthest from the doors.
At this point, I knew that we were racing the clock. More sleep was not an option so the child needed sustenance and he needed it fast... We ordered him orange juice and held him off from his meltdown just long enough for the bread to come out. As I was sighing with relief about the crisis narrowly averted, my husband took a "too large" piece of bread out of Liam's hands to rip it into smaller pieces... and our son absolutely lost it. Leading to Novel Experience Number Three: Carrying my tantruming child out of a restaurant.
So it was a day filled with Novel Motherhood Rites of Passage. The poopy, blown-out diaper in the front pack with no change of clothes, breastfeeding trailside in the woods, and carrying a tantruming toddler out of a restaurant are the flip side of the coin to the first smiles, first "I Love Yous," and first giggles that I've written about before this. But that's motherhood. You take the bad with the good, and do your very best to meet everyone's needs and climb up the pyramid knowing that things are changing moment by moment. Eventually, the coin flips once again, as it did for us tonight, and motherhood becomes a joyous journey of love, learning, and connection. So, without further ado, let's get to the happy ending of our story.
After Liam calmed down outside and had a little bit more to eat he was perfectly behaved for the rest of our meal. The food was excellent, Gracie remained asleep the entire time we were out, and Liam charmed all of the people at the surrounding tables. Our neighbors and the waitresses even commented about how well behaved he was, (clearly there was a shift change during our mealtime!) We all drove home feeling full and satisfied while Liam chattered on in the backseat about the events of his day. And this mother, hearing the joy in her son's voice as he recalled the many positive parts of our "walk in woods" and marveling about the impact that this novel experience had, realized that she would not change one moment of this day if she had it to do over again.
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