Somebody slap me...

...next time I decide to take all 3 children to the mall (45 minutes away) SEVEN days before Christmas. Seriously.

I'm not the brightest bulb on the tree this Christmas.

I decided that it would be a bright idea to pack up all 3 stooges, I mean, Sweet Boys and haul them (in the rain, I might add) to the mall this past Monday.

The really dumb thing? I wasn't even there to shop.

*sigh* I haven't left the house by myself with the 3 kids since M-A was born. Note to self: things like this should happen in baby steps. Not in big ambitious trips.

My dearest friend, Alison (HI ALISON!!), is in town from Dallas this week to visit her family. We decided to try to meet and I thought the mall with a play area would be a good meeting point. And it would have been, had I not brought all three kids, or had it not been the week before Christmas, or had I been smart enough to know that Zachary would want M&Ms in his ice cream, too.

The whole day was a comedy (I can call it that now) of errors. Starting with the rain and having to park nearly at home and ending with *almost* (and thank God it was *almost*) getting pulled over. And lots and lots of screaming, crying and cleaning up ice cream off the floor in between.

Any ideas as to when this gets better? I thought getting out of the house would solve our "cooped up in the house" issues. But it was much, much worse. Turns out, I had every reason to be very afraid of leaving the house by myself.