Adventures in Mommyhood

ok, so....Yesterday I got off work early because I had a dentist appointment, so my plan was to pick Elaina up early from daycare and go to Picture People for a Mother's Day Portrait of the 2 of us. There was a "Mother's Day" special going on at the Picture People for a free 8x10 portrait. So, since I had the time off anyway I scheduled us an appointment at 3:00pm. I was all done at the dentist by 2:00 and picked up the baby around 2:30 and we headed strait to the Brea Mall. Everything started out fine, we got there on time and I was able to occupy Elaina with some Cheerios, looking at the puppies in the shop next door, and walking around the waiting area. Then, they finally called us back to the studio and she was all over the place, she did not want to give up her Cheerios either. We tried everything to get her to sit for the pictures, but she was more interested in exploring the studio. I tried to hide the Cheerios behind my back, but she would always get up from my lap and walk around behind me to find them, she even spilled handfuls of them a couple of times in the middle of the back drop and at one point she just took off out of the studio and I had to chase her done and bring her back. Needless to say we did not get a lot of good shots. So then, we had more waiting to do to view the pictures and choose our poses and then even more waiting to do for the pictures to print and pay for them. All the while, Elaina was not wanting to sit still at all, I was following her back and forth from the puppy shop and down the aisle of the mall in front of picture people, when I had to choose our pictures she would not sit on my lap and was fighting to get down and run around. I swear I have never chosen pictures so fast in my life. I was like "OK, that one and that one, let's go!!" When were FINALLY done, I was so exhausted and hungry and frustrated and when we got home I had pretty much lost all my patience and energy and she must have been tired to because so was so fussy and clingy. We tried to play outside, feed her dinner, go for a walk, take a bath, and put her to bed around 8:30/9:00. By the time the day was over, I was a wreak! I think I ended up going straight to bed. ugh!

So, The lesson learned here is, I need back up when go on an outing like that. I don't think I will ever attempt to do that by myself again!

whew!