The one armed woman.

Going to the library was a bit of a fiasco. I get in these moods of ‘lets just get this done.’ where I decide to go and that’s it, no turning back. The library is one of my fallback places to go when the kids are driving me bananas, but today the car was out, the good stroller was in the car,and it looked like it was about the pour rain. Andy was looking at me, trying to assure me that the van would be returned soon, but I decided I needed to go, and that was that.

3 to 1. 3 adults to 1 child sounds awesome, the other way around it sounds looney. Matt is on his bike, Dahlia in her stroller, Olivia strapped around me in a sling. It all sounds very ‘contained’ until you try it. First of all, slings are great except when you have other kids, because it inhibits one arm…and nothing happens quickly if you are short one arm…so really the ratio is 1/2 to 3.

We finally get there. 20 lbs of books tied on the arms of the umbrella stroller, 3 kids in St henri. We get there and I get about 25 minutes of peace where the kids are looking at books. Whew. Then the chaos starts again. This means go time.

I shove 10 books in the bag, solve 2 fights over which DVD’s we will pick and explain why that demonic looking cartoon book is not appropriate, try and nurse a screaming four month old without flashing the family that just walked in, tell Dahlia for the 29th time to whisper, try to find library cards, and keep the umbrella stroller from falling over because of the weight of the books strapped on the back.

Done. We all get out of there, Matthew loses a training wheel, an old neighbour tries to catch up while the kids play in a phone booth, dahlia finds a dirty grocery bag which she insists on keeping, and then the baby falls asleep two steps from getting home.

This is a usual trip to get out of the house. Until you’ve been through it, you’d wonder why ever do that to yourself. If you can believe it, I actually like the craziness despite the sounds of it. I feel like by the third child I have realized that having only one arm only lasts a short while, since soon it will be free because Olivia will be crawling and then running. See you shortly arm…Olivia rolled over today! :)