Real Life Works for Me | via givinguponperfect.com

Last week was spring break, so in the tradition of spring breaks everywhere I took Annalyn to the orthodontist and made her help me clean the house half a dozen times and took her on hours-long road trips to look at houses for sale.

It was super awesome and fun.

We did do SOME fun things, though, including a trip to Barnes & Noble to buy The Best Doll in The World. [Annalyn’s been saving her money for months to buy an American Girl-type of doll named Annalyn. NAMED ANNALYN!] Then, later in the week, toward the end of the second day our house had been on the market, a day in which we had six showings and basically spent the entire day in the car, we took a trip to Target.

Just to look at stuff. And waste time. It was after dinner and after bedtime for Adrienne, but we still had more than an hour before the last showing would be finished. So obviously the Dollar Spot was the place to be. And that’s where we started, but we quickly moved to the hat section and then the kids bedroom decor and finally, the Best Aisle, the one with all the doll clothes.

As Annalyn browsed all the accessories she could dream of getting for her new Annalyn doll, Adrienne and I looked at some Doc McStuffins toys. I briefly took a couple steps toward Annalyn as she pointed out the doll beds and the doll clothes and the doll sunglasses. When I looked back at Adrienne, I noticed she was sitting awkwardly in the cart and making a familiar face.

And then she said, “Pants soaked! Socks soaked! Mommy mad?”

And THAT’S when I remembered that, somewhere between the floppy hats and the pink comforters, my sleepy baby girl had informed me that she needed to go potty. My response can only be explained — or defended — by the fact that I’d spent the entire day in the car with my children. Because I looked at her sweet face, momentarily reflected on the weeks we’ve spent potty training, and said, “Okay, yeah, in a little bit, Baby.”

Clearly the only way to answer her question (“Mommy mad?”) was to assure her I was not mad at all. Accidents happen and she was still a good girl and I was sorry I didn’t listen to her. So sorry. Because when she said she was soaked, she was NOT KIDDING. You guys. SOAKED. Dripping. Off her pants. Through the cart. Onto the floor.

A puddle on the floor. Nay, a lake. A lake of pee! In the doll aisle of Target! With no Target employee in sight, of course, and me pacing back and forth trying to figure out what to do. Because I couldn’t just leave the puddle. But I also couldn’t leave my kids to find an employee. So I just kept walking up and down the aisle (avoiding the Pee Lake, of course), saying loudly — with hopes a passing employee would hear me and stop — “I need to find someone who works here!”

Nobody who worked there happened to walk by, though. So I was incredibly grateful when another mom walked into the aisle and, after I explained why I wasn’t moving my cart and child out of her way, offered to find someone to help us. The Target employee who came a few minutes later, clean up kit in rubber glove-covered hand, was also a mom and also very kind and understanding.

I pulled my wet toddler out of the sopping cart, put our floppy hats on the shelf to purchase another day, and hustled us out of the store. I stripped her down in the back of the car and shimmied her cold, wet body into her extra outfit. Then we climbed back into the car, cranked on the heat and — obviously — went to get some ice cream.

Sometimes life is ice cream at the drive-in, and sometimes it’s a puddle of pee in the doll aisle. And sometimes? Sometimes it’s both in one crazy, this-is-real-life night.

Sometimes life is ice cream at the drive-in, and sometimes it's a puddle of pee in the doll aisle. http://wp.me/p441PU-45C #reallife Click To Tweet

In the last 15 months of hosting Works for Me Wednesday, I’ve realized that I don’t actually have a lot of practical tips or helpful hacks to share with the world. I mean, really, how many times can I tell you about the wonders of baking bacon?

So from now on, I’m going to share tips when I have them — and stories about real, undone, messy life when I don’t. Because real life? Imperfect and chaotic and laugh-so-you-don’t-cry crazy life? It works for me, too. Because it’s real and because it’s mine. And this week, REAL LIFE works for me.

Tell me something REAL about your life this week!

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