Once upon a time there was a mom with 4 small kids who loved to go on outings. She was the type of person who gets energy and motivation by being around people. From a very young age, this mom thrived in a social setting where she could interact with all sorts of people.
So naturally, when this mom got married, she looked forward to the days of having a little gaggle of chicks to enjoy her days with. The children started coming and she fell in love with each one of them. They were so unique and yet also had so many personality and physical traits of their mom and dad.
She enjoyed spending every day and night with her little ones. They would venture out of their nest several times each week...gathering worms, visiting with other birds, and exploring the world around them. But as the babies kept coming, the mom had a harder time getting out with all those little chicks. So she started staying around the nest more and more.
They enjoyed their time at home, but the nest started to feel smaller and smaller, and the long days were wearing on this mama. So here and there, she'd get out for
trips to the store, and of course visits to family and friends, or homeschool activities. Doctor visits were another necessity, and every now and then an outing to the mall, to the pool, or even to the library would take place!
The library is an intimidating place for a mom of 4 little chicks. So on this day she made sure to fill them up with chicken (er..worms), and make sure the busiest of chicks was sound asleep in the stroller when they arrived. She was able to lead the big girls to the table for summer reading sign-ups, and she even searched on her phone for some special book titles and authors for the girls. She let the baby crawl around a bit and all was well.
But soon enough, as always, the baby started getting whiny and wanted to nurse. The sleeping boy woke up and wanted his own set of books, while the big girls wanted their mom to help them find a few more books for them. The mom started to get up and help them when she suddenly caught a whiff...
So into the little "kid only" bathroom they went, leaving the book basket and stroller outside the door and letting the girls wander around some more. There was of course no changing table, so the diaper situation had to be dealt with on the floor. It was a bad one, but at least there was a swimsuit for this little one to wear!
As the swimsuit was being located in the diaper bag on the stroller, the baby crawled over and pulled up on the toilet! Big brother had soap all over his hands but couldn't reach the faucet. Biggest sister came to the rescue, but was still asking for help finding books about magic. It was time to bust her bubble and gather the chicks to leave. Quickly.
They found a few more books while the baby was wrangled into the stroller and given some lipstick to hold. Off to the checkout! The girls insisted on using the self-check, even though the mom tried to dissuade, knowing that one of the cards was bound to have a fine and not work on the self-check computer. That would be little sister's. She didn't want to use anyone else's card so they had to wait in line to talk to the librarian. The fine was only $1.30, but as she could see the predicament, the librarian waived the fee for two weeks. Meanwhile, it was realized that the baby had dropped the lipstick and so big sister was sent off to find it.
The baby was not having it, being strapped in the stroller while all this was going on. He kept throwing his daddy's library card which was given to him in hopes of appeasing his frustration. So some nice young man, likely a library volunteer, came and entertained him during the rest of the checkout fiasco, and the mom gave her sunglasses to the baby as a last attempt at consoling him. Little sister wanted no assistance with her check-out, so the mom did what she could to make sure the computer didn't shut down with its 30 second timer for each scan.
Big sis started out the door at some point and the alarm went off. Turns out the return cards hadn't been added to some books, which set off the alarm. That was dealt with quickly while the little gaggle figured out how to get the books out of the library without their hand-held shopping baskets. Grateful for the automatic door buttons, they finally made it into the lobby with all the children and all the books, but not without a casualty. The beloved sunglasses had been thrown down by the baby in the doorway and were broken.
The mom took a moment to catch her breath on a bench before making it out to the car. There was a thanksgiving prayer that all but the sunglasses made it out in one piece, and a promise to herself that she would not attempt this again anytime soon. After another quick errand the mama bird made it safely with her chicks back home to their nest.
And so, the moral of the story is that this mama bird still needs to find more contentment in her nest. She needs to leave places when the situation gets hairy, and she needs to insist that no self-checkouts be done when she has more than one child with her. She should have wipes, dipes, and a change of clothes for baby with her at all times.
And the most important lesson...never give the favorite sunglasses to the baby.
