Why God made 2 year olds so dang cute...

So that we don't abandon them on the neighbors doorstep.

OK, last night I took all three kids to Cee-Cees To meet Kelly and Leighton. It never occurred to me that this was the 1st time I've taken them out alone to a restaurant. Except for the full diet coke that Grady grabbed and dumped down the front of himself, everyone was good. If only Teagen would have actually eaten and didn't sit at her own table. Grady kept stealing Kel's fork and banged on the plate really loud. Needless to say, it was more stressful and less fun than I had hoped. With Kelly working full time, we really have no chance to catch up anymore and that didn't happen yesterday either. Then, somehow I still thought it would be fun to check out the new Target after "dinner". Kel rolls her cart over with her nice little germ-protecting seat liner for Leighton. I grab one of those limo-sized carts ( BTW-those thing require blinkers and mirrors) trying to figure out how to strap Grady into the toddler seat. You can't use the baby seat in those things, they have the leg holes blocked. So Kelly graciously removed her son from the germ-free cart to ride w/Teagen and pushed Grady in her cart. At this point Summer is crying because I told her she's too big to ride in a cart. Should have got back in the car at this point but no, I was not going to admit defeat. In we go. I left both carts with Kelly for 1 minute and I hear crying- loud crying. Its Leighton with teeth marks on his finger courtesy of Teagen. She hates if he points at her or pokes her so that's her reaction. If it happens at my house-I take care of it. BIG trouble. But I have no idea how to handle it in a store FULL of people. I give Kelly a lot of credit for not slapping her across her face(OK, Kel doesn't even have that in her) but man, I was SOOO MAD! Why is she doing this? It makes me crazy. And I thought the biting phase was over. She has bit Leighton on the arm a couple of times, but its been a while. Then while watch Leighton this week, I've noticed he has started poking and pointing at everything. He's 2 and very laid back. But he is starting to see that he can push limits and loves to push Teagen's buttons. So that is her reaction. The WRONG reaction. I cannot believe that one of MY kids is the BITER. Ya know, there's one in every daycare. Ugghh. I hate it, don't know what to do. I am Sorry Leighton. I am sorry Kelly. You guys are troopers for still loving her. Anyone have any ideas how to handle this? I'm totally at a loss.
So after about 12 seat swaps and 4 Teagen melt-downs in the middle of shopping isles, we check out. The woman in front of me in line looks back apologetically, "I'm so sorry...I've been there." I just got in line, was it that obvious that I was totally losing it? I have no idea who I've become. I can't understand how I lost control of the situation.
I'm not leaving the house again until hunting season is over.