Nightmare Come True

I knew there was something interesting I was forgetting to update the family on during our weekly Skype conference yesterday!

I have had several nightmares where I'm in a moving car - not in the drivers' seat - and I have some sort of trouble 'cause I have to hurry and hit the brake on the car somehow.

On Saturday, while shopping for last minute birthday party supplies, I had one of those "I'm an awful mother!" moments. (I don't doubt that there were at least two witnesses who later retold the story of the awful mother they saw at Freddy's.)

Before we even found a parking spot Jasper was already asking for a driving cart. I spotted on in the lot, and found a parking space right behind it. (You know, the monster huge ones that look like a car on the outside and have steering wheels for the kidlets. Kids love them, they are a PAIN to push around...) Unfortunately, the driving cart was buried under a set of three other carts, so I would have to dig. Since I have to dig out the cart before I can safely (well, safe is relative... this particular cart had a broken seat belt, and the seats are awful high. Peter often slides down into the footwell.) get the kids inside.

While I quickly hopped out to get the cart, Jasper asked if he could wait for me in the driver's seat (I left Peter in his car seat). I said sure. He "drives" all the time. I would just be a second. So I hop out of the car, and into the adjacent lot where the carts are parked and begin to dig out the driving cart. When I look up, I notice that Goldy Car is rolling backwards... but Jasper is still happily playing with whatever switches and gears he can find. (He must have popped it out of gear.)

"JASPER! JASPER!" I hollered, as I dropped everything and ran to the car.

This is where I got lucky. Jasper was smart enough to move IMMEDIATELY when I told him to, I had left the door open, so I didn't have to take the time to open it to get in, no cars were coming down the lane, and two guys happened to be watching and hopped to the back of the car. At the same time as I got in and stomped the brake, the two men got to the back of the car and stopped it just before it hit another parked car.

With my heart racing, the men gave me a little push so I could roll the car back into it's spot and FIRMLY YANK THE PARKING BREAK.

The neighboring parking car gaped as I asked Jasper to wait for me in the passenger seat, and I once again left the boys in the car so I could bring them their driving cart. But it really was the safest thing I could do with the children at the time. Two kids and one grown up in a parking lot is HARD work. Asha (the instructor for our birthing class) was right, more than one kid, and you're outnumbered!

Neither boy was fazed. My heart began racing all over again when we returned to the car from shopping. Never again will I forget to pull the parking/emergency break.