Unwelcomed guests!

I made the mistake of walking into a new Brentwood store, C'est Moi, today.  It looked so welcoming from the sidewalk and I thought it would be harmless if I just perused for a brief moment before heading to the car with Cooper and Ivy.  I was thrilled with the selection and quickly told Cooper not to touch anything as he followed behind Ivy (who was on my hip) and me.

The store is small but full of French-style goodies and decor.  It was lovely and offered me a moment to dream about future home decorations and lovely embroidered pillows.  With every step, I continued to remind Cooper not to touch anything and he stayed close behind me with the innocence I demanded.  His four-year-old hands were wrapped tightly around the cup of sweet tea we had bought moments before at the cafe up the sidewalk.

But, as I turned the corner to eye a beautiful white and pink dresser with an antique mirror and pink crystal pulls: CRASH!  I whipped around to see Cooper's eyes as wide as dinner plates.  He had picked up a beautiful glow-in-the-dark glass ball - the kind you would nest together on a coffee table - and had thrown it straight to the floor.  "I thought it was a bouncy ball, Mama!  I thought it was a bouncy ball!"  His tears started to flow and I quickly rushed to see how much it cost to help clean up the mess.  I snapped at him and said that I had told him not to touch anything and this is why these things happen because he doesn't listen when I tell him to mind me and it makes me so mad and this is why things get broken because if he would just do what I tell him to then things wouldn't break in a nice store and it just makes me so mad!

I looked over my shoulder to tell her that I would buy it immediately but the owner rushed over and said that it was fine and that she has small children too and that it wasn't a problem.  Of course, I was thinking that she shouldn't have had the damned things in a basket on the floor...but I didn't say that, of course.

So, after taking a breath, I asked Cooper to sit down on the floor with his tea while we cleaned up the glass.  After the owner got it swept up and told me about her kids, I looked over to see a huge puddle of sweet tea on the floor of the store and Cooper's eyes were, again, as big as dinner plates.  So, I said "What in the WORLD, COOPER?!!!  Why can't you just sit there and wait instead of cramming the straw down in the styrofoam cup so that it gets a big hole in the bottom and the tea spills out all over the floor of this nice store and makes a big fat mess for this nice woman to have to clean up when she just opened the store 6 weeks ago and is probably paying who knows what in rent for this itty bitty store and now we've come in here and made a big fat mess because you won't listen!!"  So, I am frantic and I quickly grab some paper towels from her and sat Ivy down beside me so that I can start wiping up the mess that Cooper made and then CRASH!  Ivy has picked up another one of those glow-in-the-dark glass balls and thrown it down on the floor because she thought it was a bouncy ball.  So I screamed and grabbed Ivy and ran out the door with Cooper's hand in mine and ran to the car for the sweet comfort of the straightjacketlike car seats for a little piece and quiet.

I never looked back.

Please go to C'est Moi in Brentwood (7020 Church Street) and buy something and tell her that I am sorry.  Also mention that my kids are still alive normally very well-behaved.