WARNING!!! DANGER!!

Beware, everyone! THIS could happen if you take your children to Target with you:

And this:
Don't let these photographs fool you. It's even worse-looking in person. And these were taken the day of; it's even more bruised and black today. He definitely has a black eye.

How did this happen, you ask? No, I did not beat him.

Pull up a chair, settle in, and hark to my tale of woe.

It all began on a lonely Friday. I decided to go to Target and get all the things on my list. I got all of them, and then the kids were getting antsy, so I let them get out of the cart while I looked at the children's clothes on sale. Long story short, Ethan was running around, and I felt too depressed and tired to stop him. He wasn't really doing any harm anyway, except endangering himself. He was hi-tailing it around a corner, tripped and fell, and hit his poor little eye right on the corner of a metal shelf.

Of course he started screaming.

The three Indian ladies standing close by shot me glaring looks of disapproval. But at least one of them was nice enough to ask me if he was okay.

At first, I was irritated that he fell, but when I looked at his eye and saw the gash, the immediate swelling, and the immediate purple coloring, my heart skipped a beat. I told myself to calm down; it didn't look like he'd need stitches, and it was barely bleeding.

We got some ice from the food area, Ethan stopped crying, we checked out asap, and drove home fast.

This is why I love and adore SHOPPING SANS CHILDREN. Shopping sans children is one of my favorite activities. 

I ended the day feeling like a failure as a mother because what kind of mother lets her children run wild around the store?

This is not a rhetorical question, so when you answer it, please answer "Even the best ones" so that I will feel better.

Thank you.

IN OTHER NEWS:

Ethan and I made pink lemonade this morning. It was this month's recipe in his High Lights magazine.

And here's Benji doing one of his favorite activities: hanging onto my pants leg. He's really talented at it.
Benji is sick. Possible teething. Fever of 100.6 yesterday, ridiculously fussy and cranky. He's got a really runny nose, some coughing, and is drooling like Niagara Falls. He woke up LITERALLY EVERY HOUR last night except for 1 am. That would be: 11 pm, 12 midnight, 2 am, 3 am, 4 am, 5 am, 6 am and 7 am. That's 8 times my friends, 8 times!!

Back to some good news: Ethan says, "I love you" these days. He's been saying it for a couple of weeks without prompting. He'll randomly come up to me and say, "I like you, Mommy." When I come back from an errand, he'll say, "I missed you." When I kiss him goodnight and say I love you, he says, "I wuv you too." It's heart-melting!