Every time I pick E up at daycare, I think that there has to be an easier way. I lug G in his carseat, which is heavy and hurts my wrists and back. I get into the room and am swarmed by toddlers who all try to climb in on top of G, or rock him like crazy until he cries. Then when I’m at the car with both kids, I try to hold E’s hand while I maneuver G’s carseat into the car. It’s not pretty, and it’s super hard on my back. I’m just not strong enough.
I see other mom’s use their stroller, but that seemed like a lot of work too. But today I finally decided to try it. I clicked G into the stroller, and headed to the door. Oh. This is harder. I had to type in my code, open the door towards me, move the stroller out of the way and then try to hold the door open and get the stroller through the door. For three doors. Phew.
Once in the classroom, I was excited to have G up in the stroller, and seemingly more protected. Except now there were more things for the toddlers to grab on to. Their faces were level with G and they were sneezing into his seat, and pushing the stroller all over and shaking it and screaming and soon so was G. Meanwhile E was also crying because one of the kids pushed him out of the way while trying to get a closer look at the baby. I tried to get to E while trying to comfort G, but everyone was crying so I decided on a quick exit.
I opened the door to let E out (I usually let him run down the hall ahead of me since he’ll stop at the office to say goodbye to the staff, and there are two locked doors between him and the outside, so I figure he’s not going anywhere). He ran down the hall as his teachers called to me. Apparently one of the toddlers had zipped a bag off of my stroller without my noticing, and they were trying to give it back to me. As I was figuring that out, E was already down the hall where I could see the owner’s husband questioning E. “Are you lost? Are you supposed to be with someone??” I called down the hall that he was with me, and felt super put together… or not.
He offered to hold the door open for me as I tried to get the stroller and E through the door. So graceful. Down the sidewalk to where the car was. Getting E to step off the curb is sometimes hard enough, and now with a stroller, that was even harder. I opened the door on G’s side. This is usually where I try to click his seat in while holding on to E. Except I realized that I can’t unhook his carseat from the stroller unless I use both hands. Which leaves no hand to hold on to E. I asked him to hold on to the stroller while I got G into the car as quickly as possible, but E had already run off (luckily onto the sidewalk). I also need two hands to collapse the stroller and put it in the trunk.
I guess E needs to be in the car first?
Then the whole ride home, G cried because he was hungry and tired. And the entire time E kept saying “Baby sad. Baby sad!!” Yup, baby is definitely sad.
Get home, carry G upstairs in his carseat. Go back to the car to get E. Carry him upstairs to find G screaming his head off, at which point E starts to do the same since he’s hungry too. Throw food at E. Throw a bottle at G. And I still had a nap to make the baby take, a dirty diaper to convince a toddler that it needed changed, PJs to put on, etc etc.
No wonder I’m exhausted at the end of the day.
