Wal-Mart Meltdown

Today Taylor and I were running some errands and our last stop was Wal-Mart. As usual I started on the non-grocery side getting everything I needed and was about to move to the grocery side when Taylor started getting fussy. I made sure that she had her toys to play with and tried to talk to her but she just kept getting louder. I thought maybe she was hungry even though it really wasn't time to eat so I stopped in the shoe department and made a bottle but she didn't want it. I checked her diaper, but it was clean. I decided to abandon my idea of grocery shopping and head for the checkout. Of course, all the open checkout lines were at least 3 buggies deep and my child is continuing her screaming. So, I picked a line that I thought looked like it was moving fast. In the meantime my child is going from screaming to full out meltdown. You would think that I was beating her or something the way she was carrying on. (Note: this is the first time this has ever happened. She has gotten a little fussy before but nothing a bottle didn't fix.) For those of you that have never had the joy of experiencing a meltdown in the middle of Wal-Mart let me explain - it feels like everyone in the store is staring at you and muttering phrases under their breath about what a bad parent you are for letting your child scream. Little did they know that I had tried EVERYTHING I knew to do at this point - toys, diaper, bottle, singing, funny faces. You would think that some person would take pity on a mother and say, "Please, go ahead of me. Your little one is not happy. I understand." But no that didn't happen, you would think that she was the first child that had ever cried in Wal-Mart. We finally make it to the checkout line and get all the bags in the buggy (there weren't really that many because remember I skipped the grocery side). As we are leaving the store the little greeter/buggy nazi decides that she needs to see my receipt to make sure I had paid for all my items - ARE YOU KIDDING ME? I have a screaming baby and you decide that I am the person that you need to harass. Not that I ever have, but if I was going to steal from Wal-Mart you can bet that I will leave the screaming baby behind - remember, EVERYONE in the store was staring at us. How could I have possibly had the nerve to steal something with all those people watching? After the lady studied every item on the receipt and matched it properly to the items in my bags she finally handed me the receipt and said "done." That's it "done." You have stopped me, searched my buggy while I desperately try to comfort my screaming child and all you can say is "done." I would have at least thought you could muster up a "thank you" or "good luck" or something but no, all I got was "done." And to make it even better I still don't know what the fit was about. She cried the whole time I loaded the bags in the car and then stopped and started giggling and smiling and talking to her toys. She fell asleep on the way home and is now napping peacefully in her crib.

Speaking of sleeping, Taylor has decided that she is a tummy sleeper. I find this kind of amusing because she hates tummy time and gets mad if she is left on her tummy and can't roll over. For quite some time she has been sleeping on her side snuggled up next to her pink monkey but sometime during the week we had the flu she decided that sleeping on her tummy would be a good thing. We put her down on her back and she immediately flips over on her tummy, sticks her rear end up in the air and tucks her hands under her and goes to sleep. It doesn't matter if she is awake or asleep when you put her down, this is what happens now.