Anywhere But Here

This morning Cambrie woke up early and cranky. She was hungry, so I nursed her. She thanked me with whine whine whine. She was still hungry, so we walked her upstairs and got her oatmeal. Whine whine whine. She was still hungry (technically a good sign, since she's getting over a little sickness) so I fed her every other bite of my cereal. Whine whine whine. Patrick and I were exhausted, rumpled, blurry-eyed excuses for living human beings. And we were growing crankier by the second. Whine whine whine. (That was us, that time.)

By the time we got back downstairs, Cambrie was in a little better mood, but we were not. I dreaded the next five hours that I had to keep the little one occupied and happy, and Patrick was so tired and grumpy, it was all he could do to keep from crawling back into bed (which would have made this mommy even crankier than she already was).

It was at this precarious point that I knew something had to change.

"Patrick, let's all go somewhere."

"Where?"

"Anywhere."

Half an hour later we set our baby loose in a supermarket.

Okay, not really all the way loose, but we did let her lead the way.

She found the toys with buttons that make noise. All in one aisle. All on the bottom few shelves. Apparently, we're some of those parents, because we just watched as she pushed button after button, until she found eight singing Elmo's in a row.

Patrick found his inner little kid.

Cambrie found her inner fashionista.


And we even hopped by Petsmart to see the fishandcatsanddogsandlizardsandmiceandbirdsandgerbils.

On the ride home, we were all in a much better mood. And we walked in the door to Christmas music and Grandma making bread.

Soon there will be warm, fresh, bread; Patrick and I are awake, content, and ready to face the day; and Cambrie is asleep. Here's to happy endings. *clinking of glasses that are half full*