Ming Wai’s Horrible Fabulous Day

Do you ever have one of those days? It sounds cliché, but the famous line from A Tale of Two Cities comes to mind. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Enough time has passed where I feel like I can share this story without shuddering.

(Ming Wai with my Crate and Barrel inspired sofa pillow.)

Well, without shuddering too much.

 

The day started off a bit iffy. The kids and I were driving daddy to the airport. Siu Jeun, especially, was all sorts of excited. Until Siu Jeun realized that Daddy had never intended on taking Siu Jeun with him. Ouch. That did not go over well! He thought he was getting a ride on an airplane.

 

As we started off on the drive home, I decided to stop into our favorite Asian market (Ranch 99). It’s only a few minutes from the airport, and we don’t get down that way too often. Since I was starving, I did a brave thing and took the kids to lunch, by myself. Miraculously, they were both very good. They didn’t spill any water, and didn’t throw any pho. As a reward, I told them we would pick out a treat when we made our next stop, at Ranch 99.

 

We tooled our way through the market, picking out a little of this and a little of that. On the candy aisle, Ming Wai made her selection – a small bag of pink jellies. When we finally made it to the check out, both of the kids were getting tired and whiney, so I knew it was time to just pay and go. Ming Wai wanted to help load up the conveyor belt, so I handed her items, while trying to keep an eye on her brother as well. We paid, grabbed our bags and turned to leave. That was when I noticed that Ming Wai was still clutching her bag of jellies, still un-paid for. Oops! Honest mistake. I turned back to our cashier, but she had already begun ringing up the next customer. I took the jellies from Ming Wai and set them near the cashier, waiting our turn to sneak back into line. That was when Ming Wai lost it. “Mommy, I wanted to hand them to her!! I wanted to dooooo iiiiiiit!!!!” I calmly turned to the cashier and told her that we wouldn’t be needing the candies after all. I didn’t want to wait around to buy a treat while she screamed at me, even though she had earned it by being so good up to that point.

 

We made our way on our Walk of Shame, with the four year old screaming the entire way. I want a treeeaaaat!!!!! I was GOOOOOOOOD!!!!!!! “Was” being the operative word here, sweetie.

See? Bad day for Ming Wai.

In the car, she eventually calmed down and we talked about why the jellies had been left behind. She wasn’t happy, but she wasn’t screaming anymore, either. By the time we got home, Siu Jeun was asleep. I gathered him up and took him up to his crib…only to find that his lovey was missing. It’s a stinky satin blanket, and it is Absolutely Necessary. I put him in his crib and promised I’d find it. I searched through the house three times, RUNNING, knowing that with each passing moment, his chances of going back to sleep were shrinking. Rapidly.

 

On my third pass through the house, I crossed paths with Ming Wai. I was frantic. “I can’t find his blanket! If you find it, we’ll make cupcakes!!!” She looked at me for a moment, cocked her head to the side, paused…and took off running. Thirty seconds later, she came back holding his blanket. I handed it off to the two year old…and you’d better believe the next stop was the refrigerator to pull out eggs and butter for cupcakes.

And, just like that, it was a great day.

 

Now, tell me – what would you have done in these situations? I’m interested to know how you would have handled the Jelly Incident…