Pride before the BIG fall

It was a long afternoon at the Horn house. We were all recovering from our busy weekend and Nathan is teething--at least we think that is why he is such a grouch. After supper Joe and I decided to try a divide and conquer strategy. I took the boys to Walmart because we had no bread, milk, butter, etc. The trip to the store was pretty much a necessity unless we wanted to have hamburgers and hot dogs for breakfast. Joe got to hang with the girls. You have to know that I usually go to Walmart very, very first thing in the morning. My kids are fresh and prepared to handle the shopping experience. For some reason I wasn't really worried about taking the boys at 6 in the evening. Everything about the afternoon should've made me concerned, but they usually do really well in the store. It was crowded--of course. About halfway through my trip I heard a kid absolutely shrieking--I think she was about 4 or 5 aisles away from me. Then about 2 minutes later I heard another girl screaming in the same aisle that I was in. She claimed her older sister had hit her. By the slight grin on her sister's face I suspected that the younger was telling the truth, but no one really asked me to play judge in the situation. I actually smiled--I know it isn't nice to take joy in someones pain, but I was feeling really good about my parenting. I knew what my kids had been like all afternoon and yet I was able to take them to the store and put on the appearance of the perfect family. And so, with a slight spring in my step, I made my way to the checkout. I walked up to an empty one and started unloading my cart. And then in a blur of a moment my perfect parenting came completely apart. I've spent quite a bit of the evening trying to figure out exactly what happened and still haven't been able to figure it out. My perfectly obedient boys were suddenly screaming--well, actually only one of them was screaming. Not really sure what I would have done if it was both of them. I wasn't sure what to do with it being just one of them. The cashier just started at me. As I kept apologizing over the screaming and the kicking she didn't say anything--absolutely nothing, not "oh, it's fine. it happens all the time". She just stared. I think she was rather amazed at his stamina. I tried not to think about how many other people were staring as I attempted to walk out of the store with dignity while the boys were screaming (yes, the other one started in when I finished checking out). And so I definitely will not smile the next time I see sibling rivalry in the pizza aisle. Trying to buckle a boy acting like a rabid raccoon into a car seat in the Walmart parking lot has definitely cured me of that!!