What were we thinking?

Two children? Two children! Too scary.....

Yesterday, I went with Heather to her doctor's appointment. It was in Regensburg, so I could watch John while she was in the appointment, and then we could do a bit of shopping.

At first, John was just sleeping away in his car seat. Ashlyn was getting a bit fidgety and wants to scream (sigh.) So, we went out in the main hospital waiting area, where they had a kids table with one of those bead and wire toys. That lasted about 2 minutes before she was distracted by a plant with little clay balls in the pot. She started throwing the little balls out of the pot. Fortunately, she thinks clean up is fun, so when I said clean up and started picking some of them up, she started singing "clean up, clean up."

I decided we were through with this area, so we headed back to the other waiting area, where Heather was now sitting. Ashlyn was a bit distracted by Heather, who she seems to adore, and calls "Hallo." After Heather was called back into the exam room, I realized that Ashlyn has a dirty diaper. It is just at this time that John starts crying. At first, I think that I can change the diaper real quick and then attend to John. Then John starts crying harder. So, I pick John up and attempt to change Ashlyn's diaper with John on my lap. I manage to get her diaper off and the majority of the poop wiped away before Ashlyn decides that she doesn't want a new diaper and stands up. She starts walking down the hall, with her pants around her ankles. I quickly put John back in his car seat, where he starts crying harder, and run after Ashlyn quickly. By this point, she has made it into the main area, where I can hear a bit of laughter. I grab her and run back to where I left poor John crying. I quickly put a clean diaper on Ashlyn and grab John and his pacifier. Of course, this did not suffice and he needed his bottle. Holding a baby and feeding them a bottle is a two handed job. At this point, I cannot do anything for Ashlyn. Fortunately, she is VERY interested in all things baby so she played with his car seat and pacifiers until Heather was ready to leave.

And, during this time, I am truly thinking "what were we thinking?"

After the appointment, we went to Toys r' us. They have several slides, swings, and playhouses outside. Ashlyn had to try out each one of before we could go in the store. It is quite possible that one of the signs on the equipment said something about not letting your kids play on them, but, hey, they were in German. (I know. Stupid Americans.) And, could you really tell your two year old that those slides can't be used?

After we managed to drag Ashlyn inside, she was sooo excited. Usually, I plop her directly into a cart, so she isn't able to check things out. I walked past the carts without noticing them at first, so she didn't want to get in them after that. I don't think she did too badly, though. We did have another clean up play time, after she threw every ball out of one box, though.

When we made it downstairs, Ashlyn spotted a doll stroller from across the store and took off running. I was planning on checking out the party stuff, but followed her instead. She spent about thirty minutes, pushing one of 4 different umbrella strollers around with one of the babies in it. I had no idea how much fun a toy store could be! (Not since I was a child anyway.)

I never made it to the art supply section,which was one of my main purposes, so I guess I'll have to go back.

It will be a couple of years before this next one will be able to run around after (or the other direction from)Ashlyn at the toy store, at least.

I will eventually post pictures. I promise.