Costco extravaganza

      Any good normal mom knows that at some point, usually after a few days of rain or snow, she and her little people must get out of her house, into civilization, and attempt to socialize.  This is where having mommy friends comes in very handy.  It is best to associate with other mommy friends similar to yourself.  There are several different species of mommies.  To name a few, you have the granola, earthy mommies whose children wear only organic cotton and diapers of hemp.  The granola mommy's kiddos are generally good sharers but are not vaccinated and always have the best and most wholesome of snacks.  
      Organized moms (the soccer moms) have tightly scheduled days.  A typical day follows the same basic routine: wake time, followed by breakfast time, then a few books to mold the mind, an art project to promote self growth, maybe an errand to Gymboree or Barnes and Noble, lunch and then naptime. These moms volunteer for everything, sit on PTOs, and kids always look put together and weel groomed.   Basically, the "supermom" who makes every other mom feel at least a tad insufficient. Naptimes are etched into the very beings of her children and any deviations from the schedule could cause an organized mommy to unravel in front of your eyes. For the nap, is when the organized mommy can be a "normal" human being. I think they probably clean their houses top to bottom, run several miles on their treadmills, and then still have time to pluck their eyebrows and paint their nails.  These women have their shit together.  Honestly, I'm not really sure what they do during naptime, I haven't ever spent much time with this type.
  On occassion, I've run across a Christian mom or two.  Again, for me, I don't come into contact too frequently with this mom.  These ladies are cute, sweet, and nice, and of course birth little angels.  Their kids some how rarely fall apart or talk back.  I have a sweet Christian mom down the street.  My brood walk down to the nearest park and she and I enjoy watching our kids play together our the playground.  She has a mild manner and tries not to stare and my boys pushing each other (in a loving way) into the ground.  Only a small gasp escapes her mouth if I accidently mutter an occassional curse word under my breath.  She smiles sweetly when I yell out to stop tackling one another,  She on the other hand, has the patience of Mary, mother of God.  She uses an inside voice and calm manner when asking her two year old to be careful playing near the slide with the dandelions.  Very nice lady however, any amount of time I spend with her leaves me feeling like crazy mom.
      I would venture to say I am a chaos mom.  I roll out of bed when my boys begin jumping on it.  We start our day at a different time in a different way every day.  I begin every day with good intentions of cleaning the bathrooms, tackling the major heap of laundry that has overtaken my basement, and maybe some dusting but alas this never happens.  After a glass of spilled milk and syrup in hair, I generally call a mommy friend for some early morning coffee therapy. I will not lump my friends into the category of chaos, they are good mixes of the above, but I like them, they like me (I think), and we seem to have a lot in common.  We compare our morning stories of who house is more chaotic and then decide we should probably get the kids together for their benefit.  Generally we head over to each others houses, fix blue box mac and cheese, let the children destroy whose ever home we're in (we do take turns) and then when it's time to come up with some dinner plans, we part our separate ways.  We are home in time to throw together something quick, but tasty, for the hubby to enjoy.  These days, the kids always have a blast together and the mommies enjoy the presense of another adult. 
    This particular rainy day, my gal pal Cara, and I agreed we needed out of our houses. She has an almost 4 year guy and 2 year old little princess.  We had done a playdate the previous day so we needed an outing.  What to do with a combined 5 children? We agreed that lunch at Costco would be an opportunity for a cheap meal and an errand with a friend. Perfect! I skipped the shower, stuck Finley in her carseat and attempted to talk Declan into wearing something other than his green cowboy boots with his sweatpants. Five minutes into the debate I laughed and decided there were more important battles to pick and rushed out the door to pick up the Budman from school. On my way, I called another galpal, Kelsey, whose two-and-half-year-old little girl is always a great playmate for the Deckers and Cara's girl. Kelsey is expecting a sweet baby this summer so her bump adds a fun dynamic to our motley little crew.
  We walked into the door and were instantly greeted by Cara and her kiddos riding in the cart.  I placed Finley in her carseat carrier into the basket of the cart, my boys hopped on the front of the cart, and to the food court we went. As I pushed the cart of blonde little cherubs, heads turned as if to watch and avoid sitting anywhere next to where we were about to park.  A moment later preggo Kelsey walked in with Little Miss Thing strutting her stuff with striped leggings and a red patent purse.  The children became a flutter and between the excitement of outnumbering us 2:1 and Costco hotdogs, the chaos ensued.  We all ordered lunch and picked out a couple tables on the end closest to the entance to take over.  As we ate, one of Buddy's best little girlfriends from school (who he would like to learn Spanish to impress) and her little brother wander over with their mommy, Tonya, another gal pal. So if you're keeping track, that's 7 toddlers, 1 baby in a carrier, and a baby in belly. 
     It was perfectly wonderful! We moms gabbed and sipped our Diet Cokes as the children finished their lunches and played sweetly.  As we visited, I scanned our little herd to visualize how they were all holding up.  Buddy was laying on the bottom rack of the shopping cart Fin's carrier was in and he was pushing himself (and Fin) back and forth and back and forth.  Declan had one hand of Tonya's little girl in both of his chubby little hands, and was down on a knee telling her apparently very funny little things.  The two little ladies were gabbing to each other about the red purse and shoes. And maybe then, a game of chase began between all of them, running laps around our large table.  A little crazy but nothing serious enough to keep us from finishing our conversations.  They were being pretty much, normal, funny little kids but the majority of the food court could not pry their eyes away from this spectacle of chaos.
     We finished our lunches and said our goodbyes to Tonya and her two.  Cara, Kels, and I, decided while we were at Costco, we should defineltely do some grocery shopping, converse some more, and check out all the great samples. We kept Finley in the basket and put two of the kids in the seats of the cart while the remaining three kept close, taking turns riding on the front of the cart of hanging from Cara's jean pockets. So if you can imagine, three mommies, five blonde little toddlers and a sleeping baby, covered in the days groceries.  We were quite a sight. Nearly every pair of eyes we passed, stared at us, as if we were a car accident. We joked that we looked like sister wives holding eachother's kids, shopping together. And, we totally did. 
     We fed our little people samples of all kinds, and as we drew close to the checkout, we approached by a young woman, early 20s, with a perplexed look on her face. "You girls look normal, and your kids are so good," she said.  Ok lady, glad we can pull it off I thought.  But, she continued. "I just found out I was pregnant this morning, and I walked in and saw kids everywhere, spinning on carts, chasing eachother, running around with sweatpants tucked into cowboy boots, and I called my mom crying, saying I just don't think I can do this.  But I can, I just want to be like you guys."
  I justed laughed and pulled out one of Deck's little legs from the cart and sheepishly giggled at her as she took note of his green cowboy boot with the leg of his sweatpant tucked into it.  The young woman started to fumble and apologize but I just shook my head, waved her off and laughed. "No worries, kids change your life forever, in the best of ways. You'll survive!" And so will I!