A Fun Farmer's Market Visit (also, Fresh Linen and Puke don't mix.)

This was it!

Finally the day for us to go to the Farmer's Market.  Everything was ready.  I had a half day of vacation from work, John was picking Katie up early from school and he and the kids were meeting me at work at 12:30 so we could park and walk over.

He called me at 12:23 to tell me he was outside and I heard Jake crying.

Then I heard John say, "Jacob puked."

I was all, "How bad can it be?  He hasn't had lunch yet so it can't be terrible.  We'll just wipe him up with wipies and be on our way.  Easy peasy." and walked out of the office with a spring in my step.

After all, we'd only rescheduled this day five MILLion times (okay, maybe it was five... five times) with my work and finally, FINALLY everything seemed to come together and we were going to have a fun family outing even if it hurt.

I walked outside (still springy) and saw my family standing on the sidewalk.

"Oh," I thought, "How nice!  They were so excited to see me that they had to step outside to watch me as I walk out!  I wonder who's going to give me the first hug!"

My next thought was, "Hmmm, why does Katie have her frownie face on?"

And still my next thought was, "Where are Jake's pants?"

Now, these thoughts came quickly.  It didn't take too long for me to put it together.  And let me tell you...  Puke + car + baby = fussy and smelly.  Katie doesn't like crying or stinky smells.  Neither do I for that matter but I managed to keep the gag reflex down as I put my bag in the back of the car and got a whiff of Jake's shorts and just the general... smelliness that seemed to have taken over the interior of the car.

It was B A D.  And we got to "enjoy" it all the way home.

And I laughed through my grimace remembering that I thought we would be able to fix this with wipes.  I laughed more when I got into the back seat and saw that  John had already tried to clean up the mess with wipes - there were about 20 of them on the floor of the car - and it must have helped a little but even wipes were no match for puke.  If he'd had a hose or something, we maybe could have cleaned out some of the gross mess but we did not have a hose.  So the car stunk all the way home.

So, to recap, no one was glad to see me, everyone under 4' was crying, and the whole way home was pretty miserable.

Then Katie asked when we were going to the Farmer's Market and I hated to break the news to her but I had to tell her that I didn't think we would be able to go, but we would try.

She cried.  Because if there's one thing she dislikes, it's not being able to do something (or not having a definite and right - in her book - answer on something she's had her heart set on, and this was one of those things.

We got home and put Jake to bed.  John took off the car seat cover and I threw it in the wash.  Katie walked around chattering away and asking questions.  And was getting a little huffy over not being able to go on our Farmer's Market trip.

Then... out of nowhere... came this awesome idea!  I could bring Katie to the Farmer's Market and John could stay home with Jake!

He and Katie both thought it was brilliant (okay, that might be over-exaggerating) and my status as the best Mommy EVER was reestablished (definitely not over-exaggerating!).

Of course, the more the merrier so I invited Grammy and Grampy to go with us and they just happened to be available.  We picked them up on the way (unfortunately, even after a hearty spray with some air freshener, the car still had that faint smell of puke.  Now it was just Fresh Linen-scented puke but Grammy and Grampy didn't complain one bit) and got a parking spot.

We walked about 9 blocks out and hit every booth.  It was a lot of walking.

We ate hot dogs at one of the street vendor stands where the topic of conversation was how the lady next to us had her purse stolen that morning.  And I spilled mustard on my pants.

And we shopped.

I bought bananas, strawberries, blackberries, toasted almonds, dried apples, and soap.  Grammy bought some onions and some honey.  She might have picked up something else but I don't remember because I was too busy trying to convince Katie that "big girls walk" to the car, they don't get carried.

This worked for awhile in conjunction with the cookie I used as a bribe shared with her.  But pretty soon she decided she was too tired to go on.  And I carried her... piggy-back.  Not really something I would recommend.  I mean, it wasn't too bad for the first three blocks, but after a that she had gotten pretty heavy (I was happy when she finally settled her hand placement to a location *not* wrapped around my neck.  Supporting the weight of a toddler with the same part of my body that needs to remain unobstructed so I can maybe breath a little was challenging, to say the least!).

We were about 3 blocks away when I finally convinced her to walk on the side of a planter, like a balance beam.  After a moment of panic when I realized we were out of balancing ledges, I make up the "Let's run till mommy's out of breath and exhausted AND tired of saying, "Don't step on a crack!  Don't step on a crack!"  Luckily I've been doing that 30-Day Shred or I might have ended up on the ground.  Oh, remember all of the stuff I bought?  Grampy carried my (very heavy) bag the whole time.

We finally (FINALLY) made it to the car.  I had a fun time looking at everything and the stuff we bought was pretty good (we've already finished the strawberries and blackberries though... and the bananas are almost gone too.  TWO bunches of them!  Jake is a banana fiend!).

So, I would say this was a successful "field trip".  We dropped Grammy and Grampy off at home and headed out to Katie's dentist appointment.

And that is a story for another day.