The Crayon Saga...Part II

Saturday night, after the kids were forced to bed, I did some calculating and realized that they ruined over $100 worth of their little brother's clothes. So I had some heart and figured if they bought $60 worth of new clothes for the youngest then I'd call it even. That's 3 weeks of allowance for each of them so I figure that's sufficient, besides, by the time they bought $100 worth of clothes, their brother would've grown out of them.

So it was off to the store. *insert constant, "I want that, I want that, I want that" here* I took them straight to the toddler section and we hit the clearance racks. All was going well, the oldest girl was picking out stuff for her brother, I was trying to explain to the 6 year old why we were looking at the clearance racks only, and the baby was chewing on my cell phone. 45 minutes later we had 5 shirts, 3 pairs of jeans and a package of socks. We headed to the check out. This is where it got ugly.

The Wal-Mart here is set up so that you literally cannot walk through the store without going by or through the electronics department. It's huge and it's smack dab in the middle of the bloody store. There was no way around it. I handed out verbal warnings "we're not getting anything else. We are going to the check out and leaving." We keep walking. Then it happens, 6 yr. old boy, who just happened to get a Nintendo DS for his birthday last week, sees a game he wants. It's on sale, for $10 dollars. Chaos ensues. He whines, he cries, he throws a tantrum. In the middle of Wal-Mart. And I look like the teenage mother who you'd like to explain the mechanics of sex to. I'd like to note here that the 6 yr. old is 59 lbs. He's almost up to my shoulder. The 8 yr old is almost eye level with me. Not exactly the kind of kids you can grab and make a mad dash for the check out before you die of embarrassment. So I grabbed his hand, and headed to the check out. The tantrum continued through the check out, in the car, and all the way home.

I asked 8 yr old to get her baby brother from his car seat and bring him inside. I get 6 yr old out of car, march him inside, down the hallway and into his room. Told him he could leave his room when he was done with his fit. More screaming, yelling, throwing things. I went to the living room, turned some music on, and went about my business. The tantrum went on for 2 hours. It suddenly got quiet and I went to check on him, he was asleep--on the floor. I left him there. Figured he wore himself out. Made lunch, put the baby down for a nap and painted nails with the 8 yr. old

Stay tuned for The Crayon Saga...Part III. Oh yes, there's more.