In addition to Annie being a little nutcase, she’s also verrrry unpredictable. Or maybe that’s part of being a nutcase, I dunno. What this means is that Mike and I are very careful about taking her out in public. We never want her to have a freak-out and disturb anyone, so if we want to do something like go to a restaurant, we have to do some kid math to decided if it’s worth the risk.

Nine times out of ten, we make the right decision, and we get cuteness at brunch:

Scrunchy face!

Lately, that complicated kid math has led to us leaving her at home with one parent while the other runs errands. It’s a thousand times easier to navigate a store sans toddler. Would she lose her cool at the drug store? Probably not. She knows what the consequences are if she is naughty. But we try to avoid the situation when we can.

A couple months ago, Mike was working and Annie and I were out for the day. We paid Dr. Looove a visit and did a couple other miscellaneous things while we were in the area. I needed to pop into the store to buy one last thing, and I knew if I waited to get back to our new neighborhood, Annie would be asleep in her car seat. So, I decided Annie and I would run into our old grocery store. I knew she was tired, but we were just grabbing one thing, so I figured we’d be in and out in two minutes.

We walked in past the shopping carts, and Annie immediately started protesting that we didn’t get one. “We don’t need one, honey. We’re just getting one thing.” But she wouldn’t let it go, and started complaining, loudly, that she wanted a shopping cart. I was practically dragging her to the aisle I needed while she was yelling, “I JUST WANT A CART!!!” I grabbed what I needed, then picked her up and carried her up to the checker.

The checker tried to calm Annie with the offer of a sticker, but she wasn’t having it. She was flailing around, and I needed to put her down so I could pay. I set her on her feet, but she went all crazy jelly legs and collapsed on the ground, screaming and kicking. I looked down at her, then turned to the checker and handed over my debit card real casual-like. It was just going to have to be a scene, but luckily we would be done in thirty seconds.

Someone came to get in line behind us, saw Annie doing tantrum angels on the ground, and slowly backed away. The bag boy came over and looked horrified. I gave him a “yep, she’s freaking out” half-smile. I punched in my debit code, then bent down and picked up a thrashing Annabel. The checker said to me, “Good luck with…this…” and looked at Annie while she handed me the one freaking item I’d had to stop for. A pregnancy test. Totally not embarrassing at all.

And that is why I try to run errands without her.