Public Restroom Nightmare!

We just returned home from a fun vacation. We spent time with both sides of the family and were go, go, going the entire time we were gone. Now we need a rest from our vacation! I have tons of pictures and stories and someday I may actually get around to posting them, but I did have to get this story down so I wouldn't forget.

I drove 5 1/2 hours by myself with the 4 kids to my parents home. I figured since I survived my last solo trip I could certainly do it again. Let me just say that the kids actually did really well this trip. No one even cried! There were a few moments when Isaac was causing problems, but this time I brought plenty of snacks that I kept distributing which somehow kept everyone happy. The kids weren't very interested in watching the DVD player so we sang songs, played games and talked a lot about what we were seeing out our windows. Talking with the kids made the time pass quickly for me as well.

But what solo trip with 4 kids would be complete without some sort of comical episode. We stopped halfway through our trip to eat lunch and nurse the baby. We had just ordered our food and sat down to eat when Samuel loudly declared for most everyone to hear that he needed to poop (a mom's worst nightmare when she is alone and has 4 kids she's going to need to take to the public restroom!!!).

Well this was just great timing! I couldn't send Samuel to the restroom by himself because the Wendy's where we were eating was attached to a gas station and the restroom was not even close to where we were sitting. I couldn't take Samuel to the bathroom and leave Bella in charge of the other kids and I couldn't take all the kids and leave the food we had just sat down to eat. So I told Samuel he was just going to have to hold it and promptly declared that everyone needed to eat as fast as they could. Poor Samuel after a few minutes couldn't even sit down and kept telling me it was coming! Somehow we managed to gulp down all of our food, get everything in the garbage and head to the restroom - only to find a line which extended out the door!!

The restroom had three stalls and was very tight. I really wanted to usher us all into the handicap stall, but it was not available once we finally got inside so I had to send Samuel to the first available stall. Then another stall opened so I sent Bella in. She was quickly done, but Samuel was taking FOREVER! I knew this was going to be a problem because he is not quick when it comes to this act. Let's just say that the next 15 or 20 minutes were not pleasant as I tried to entertain 3 kids in a very tight space while at least 9 other women came in to use the facilities. (This was a very happening restroom!)

I was thinking of every sort of game you can possible play while stuck in a public restroom. I told Isaac and Bella to pretend they were glue and see who could stick to the wall the longest. Then I had them wash their hands a few times. They were entertained by the hand dryer for a few minutes. Then I was having them jump on different squares. All the while women kept coming in and having to manuever around us to get into the other stalls. I finally stuck Jenna in her carseat under one of the sinks. I kept asking Samuel if he was hurrying. He would give me a loud play by play for everyone to hear every so often. This really was a comical nightmare!!

FINALLY Samuel was done and we got back in the car. I still had to nurse the baby but was so thankful she didn't start to cry while we were in the restroom for so long. All told, the stop took us 50 minutes! Chalk this up to another comical experience I survived with 4 little ones.