All We Need is Just a Little Patience. Ooh, oh, yeah.

Abbie and I went to the store yesterday. This is a common occurrence in our house as I regularly visit three different stores just for groceries. I visit the cheap grocery store that keeps prices low by cutting corners like charging customers for grocery bags,* requiring a deposit to take a cart,** and not refrigerating the produce.*** Their food is uniformly low quality, and you know it’s bad stuff when person saying that is the same person who routinely fails to notice mold on his cheese before consuming it. I also visit the regular grocery store, which generally has the otherwise lowest prices in town on tolerable goods. Then I visit the grocery store that gives wacky coupons.

Yesterday I had a wacky coupon.**** On the way from the car to the store, I set Abbie on the ground and held her hand as we traversed the parking lot. She still walks pretty slowly with her stubby legs and easily distractibility. Still, I let her walk whenever I’m not in a hurry to return home for some reason like to start dinner or to change a suspiciously stinky diaper. I held her hand and kept her mind off particularly alluring rocks or shiny lights with a constant dose of encouraging phrases like “c’mon Abbie” and “let’s go Abbie” and “great job Abbie.” I plan to continue offering similar encouragement until the day she tells me, “even I can tell you’re trying too hard dad.”

After making our way inside, a grandmotherly woman stopped to talk to us. She complimented me on my patience with her. She said too many parents drag their children behind them while walking regardless of whether or not they can keep up. While I have to admit the drag technique does have a certain allure, I’m fonder of carrying her when I’m in a hurry. If I’m not in a hurry, I let her move at her own pace. The way I see it, I have to do something to entertain her. She’s still at an age where walking through a grocery store parking lot is exotic entertainment, and if we move quickly enough to deprive her of that pleasure, I simply have to make up the entertainment time at home by reading the same book over and over and over until I just want to kill Clifford and his stupid Christmas presents.

I thanked her for her compliment, agreed that we have to have patience, and moved on my way. Internally though, I thought it strange that strangers see my patience. The past couple days I’ve felt my patience wearing thin with her. After napping beautifully for a couple weeks straight, usually until at least 3:30 and sometimes well past 4:00, she has woken up early two days in a row now. Yesterday she woke shortly after 2:00, before I could even step in the shower. Today she woke shortly after 2:30, giving me time to shower but not make my lunch. This cut right into my “me” time, i.e. internet time. Instead of spending time relaxing and blogging, I spent more time than planned watching her. Sure I love Abbie, but I also love googling my name, and the key to a happy life is balance. This must be how Terrell Owens feels to have his plans for the future radically changed through absolutely no fault of his own.

So while I feel like I’m being short with her sometimes, it’s good to know strangers still think I’m applying proper amounts of patience. I’m just running seriously short on blogging time. If you feel cheated with sub par posts, let me know how to force a 17-month-old to sleep as much as she should, and I’ll get these posts back up to snuff. Otherwise, I should probably just get used to severe time limits because once the twins come, I’ll have less free time than Terrell Owens’s public relations agent.

* Seriously.
** Really.
*** Not really, I think.
**** A dozen eggs for 9-cents.