The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

And no, not the famous story book, but rather my Thursday.  Today after school I attempted to take Jack to Target to get him some Valentines for his little party tomorrow.  FAIL.  For several reasons...

I had to get a few other things while we were there, and before I could get to the Valentine's section, Jack announced very loudly (in his rather panicked voice) that he had to go to the bathroom (which usually means RIGHT NOW).  We raced our cart to the restroom, and I quickly propped him up on the potty. 

A little bit of background before I go on...at school Jack stands to go potty - I think mostly due to peer pressure and the fact that their toilets are much lower than they are at home, but when we're at home, he usually prefers to sit.  This requires him to get naked from the waist down - no, I'm not kidding.  In public, I pretty much have to assist him so that we don't take off our clothes, but don't pee all over ourselves either.  It works.

However, today it wasn't working.  There was some other woman in one of the stalls down the way, and I'm sure she was just suppressing her laughter so as to keep me from dying of embarrassment, but seriously, he was throwing a small fit because I told him we weren't going to remove his jacket and/or his socks, shoes, pants, and underpants completely.  Jack just kept saying over and over that he couldn't go and he needed to take off his clothes.  At this point, I'm completely sweaty, we still don't have Valentines, and we're meeting Brad's family for dinner in 30 minutes.  Lovely.

Finally, I succumbed to his insistence and there in the public restroom, Baby Jack got naked from the waist down.  Turns out he needed to be a little more comfortable in order to do what he needed to do, if you get my drift.  A good ten minutes later, we finally emerged from the restroom.  Jack was fully clothed, feeling better, and clean, but I looked like I'd been hit by a Mack truck. 

Moving on, we headed to the Valentine's section where I discovered that you cannot wait until the Thursday before Valentine's Day to buy boxed Valentines.  Did you know this?  And if so, why didn't you share?  With the exception of maybe four girly boxes, they were out.  I nearly cried. 

The whole way to dinner (in our very silent car, I tell you) the only thing I could think about was how on earth do people do this when they have two children?  Am I crazy?  How do you keep a half-naked toddler clean in a public restroom while holding a baby carrier?  How is that scene going to look a year from now?  Oh, it's simply too much for me to think about... 

Please tell me it gets better.  Please.