Our Morning at the Park

The weather is beautiful this week in Arizona. A beautiful 70 degrees at 10 a.m. I decided on a *whim (*note to self: No more decisions on a whim) to take the girls to the park. They ran and got themselves dressed, and Ella was already asleep in the Moby Wrap on my chest, so we were good to go, right? I didn't want to pack a big bag to take to the park, so I opted to take a bottle of water and a conference Ensign to read while the girls played.

Kalia hopped on her scooter, Annie on her bike (that she recently learned to pedal, yay!) and off we went. It was nice and breezy so I covered Ella all the way up with the Moby and 5 minutes later we were at the park. The girls started collecting pine cones and playing in the sand, and I sat down on a bench and read the opening talk by Pres. Monson. You know, the really short one? It took about 2 minutes. That's when Ella started stirring. Dang it, I thought! She's probably going to be hungry. Luckily I am nursing her, so the food wasn't the problem, the problem was that I was going to have to take her out of the Moby Wrap and feed her with all these neighbors (and their giant windows) looking at me. I wasn't too worried about other women or small children, but any sicko men that wanted a free look at a boob. I went and sat by a tree and tried to shield myself from any onlookers. That's when I discovered two small things that I'd forgotten when I rushed out the door:
1. Ella wasn't dressed, she was in nothing but a diaper
2. I wasn't wearing a bra.

Oops.

I silently curse myself for forgetting these details, because now I have to be extra sneaky about feeding her in case anyone else came to the park or even just drove by and saw me nursing a naked baby. (Plus I didn't want her to get sunburned.) I decided to use the Moby Wrap as a cover (as best I could) but I really didn't want to untie the wrap and take it off, because that would require me having to put Ella down on the ground (IN HER DIAPER NO LESS!) in order to put it back on.

I managed to feed her on one side. There may have been a little boob sighting for some people, but it wouldn't have been for long. I stayed covered up.

Then Ella pooped- I heard it. I was praying it didn't leak out anywhere, since I had nothing to change her with. I kept feeding her, wishing I had her gas drops (I've been giving them to her with every feeding-- seems to be helping-- less crying...) That's when Kalia ran over and said she had to go potty. We had been at the park for all of 15 minutes. I was debating just leaving. There is no bathroom at this park. I had asked her to go before we left, but of course, she didn't. So I told her that I couldn't help her, but she could go squat by a bush somewhere. (We've done this before, but usually I hold her up so she doesn't have to pee on herself.) That's when she said it was actually #2 that she had to go.

Great.

So I did what any great mother would do. I told her to hold it. She liked this idea, since she didn't want to go home yet.

The girls went on playing and I kept on feeding and burping. Ella fell asleep while nursing and so I just let her sit there on my boob for about 20 minutes, and the girls got to play happily (whew!). But when she woke up, she was fussy and I was out of ideas. We had to go home.

I told the girls to get their shoes, helmet, pinecones, etc and we were leaving. Then I realized I could use Kalia to hold Ella while I re-tied my Moby wrap. She was able to do an adequate job, but in my hurry to get that half-naked baby hidden against me, I did a terrible job tying the wrap. In fact, after making it only 25 yards, I had to stop, take her out, ask Kalia to sit down and hold her again, and re-tie. The second time was better. Now Kalia wanted to ride Annie's bike, but I said NO WAY, because Annie + Kalia's scooter = SLOOOOOOOWWW. So I convince them to leave on the vehicles that they came on, and we started on our way. Annie and I got ahead of Kalia, she had to stop for some reason, and she wailed, "WAIIIIIIIITTTTTTT!" As if she could never catch up. 4 seconds later she had caught up and passed us. This is when Annie decides to get off her bike and PULL it. Kalia is about to cross the street on her own, but I yell until she stops. She waits (forever) for us to catch up. I am using my conference Ensign to shield the sun from Ella's face (at least it was good for something on this outing.)

We managed to cross the street together after two cars passed (one lady smiling, probably thinking, "She's really got her hands full, bless her heart") and then Kalia races ahead again, Annie still pulling her bike at a snails pace. Finally I give up in frustration and grab Annie's bike and start pulling it myself, telling Annie to just WALK. I march off, dragging the bike backwards by it's handle, shading Ella from the sun, when Annie decides she will RIDE while I pull it backwards. Kalia, who has stopped again and is getting left behind wails again, "WAAAIIIIIIIIIITTT" and I yell a little too loud "NOO!!! HURRY UP!" and marched on.

We passed our next door neighbor as we got home, who for some reason shouted, "The girls look so cute!" (???????? What on earth? They got themselves dressed, I hadn't done their hair, and I was pulling Annie backwards and shielding the baby with a magazine. How is any of this cute?)

Well, at least by the time I got to the door, I decided to take a picture and document this experience. I was really frustrated at this point, and tried to remind myself that "someday I'll miss this" but I was having a hard time remembering exactly WHAT I would miss about times like this.

We walked in the door and Kalia took off her helmet and totally chucked it outside and it smacked into the ground. I said, "Uh-oh, I hope you didn't break it." She said, "I didn't. It's made of wood."

Okay. I will miss hearing things like that when she's all grown up. So...we survived. Ella's diaper didn't leak. Kalia was able to hold it. Annie kept her panties dry. I didn't run into anyone I knew (besides a quick passing of the neighbor) who would see me with messy hair and a visor on. And no bra. So ya know what? It could have been worse. But I guess I learned my lesson. Boy Scouts 101. Be prepared.

(Don't you love Annie's headband?)




Thank you Ella, for sleeping long enough for me to write this now.