Do you ever have those mommy moments, where you just have to sit back and laugh at the absurdity of it all? I think I had the mommy moment to top all mommy moments this summer.

This year, we decided to get ambitious and throw Little T a birthday party, despite my injured foot and busy schedule. I made a mistake and didn’t see the R.S.V.P. list, and thought only a few people were coming. I was planning for a low key event with a few family members until the night before, when I found the link to the r.s.v.p. list and realized that everybody and their mother was coming. Suddenly, the birthday party became more exciting and involved.

On the day of the party, Big T and I split up to tackle the chores. I ambitiously announced to Big T that I was going to take Little T to Target with me to get supplies, to which he responded by raising an eyebrow and glancing at my foot, and saying, “you sure?” I was feeling like super mom that morning, so I shrugged off his concern and confidently said, “Of course, I’m sure!” I scooped up Little T and waddled with my injured foot to the car, and we were quickly on our way.

At Target, my foot began to throb and I had to admit defeat and use one of those crazy electric scooters. I was really embarrassed about this, but determined to do a great job with this birthday party. I plopped Little T onto my lap, and began to slowly roll my way through the store. Oh, how I wish I had a camera.

Little T thought this was exciting for about two minutes, and then he decided it would be more fun to run around the store on his feet like a normal person. It took all my strength to hold onto him and keep him on the electric scooter.

By the time we got to the food aisle, Little T had it. He didn’t want to look at my iphone, he didn’t want to help put things in the cart. He wanted to go over to the basketball aisle, and couldn’t for the life of him figure out why on earth I didn’t want to go there, too.

With a determined wiggle, he leaped out of my arms and ran down the Target aisles, dropping my phone on his way. I couldn’t walk fast, so I limped slowly after him, shouting his name and calling for him to come back. I got a mixture of “what’s wrong with you” and pity stares. Yep, I looked like the mother of the year. By the time I got to Little T, he was in the basketball aisle (of course) and had managed to pull out every single basketball he could find. It. Was. Awesome.

We were met by a Target employee who had found my phone on the floor somewhere. I’m sure he was thrilled to see the mess Little T had made and began to help pick things up. He was polite, even though I could tell he was questioning my parenting abilities, and asked if I needed any help. I looked at a restless Little T, looked at my foot, and said “no, thank you”. Unless he sold a magical toy that was capable of entertaining my sports obsessed son, or perhaps could make my foot instantly healed, there was nothing he could do.

By the time we got to the party supplies section, Little T was crying non stop. He wanted to go back to the basketball aisle. I grabbed whatever party stuff I could find, and decided that the theme of Theo’s birthday party was going to be “mass chaos”, or “working parents”, and wound up with a hodgepodge of colors and characters to display for his party. I like to think we were just being inclusive and didn’t want to leave any theme out.

All in all, it was a crazy and exhausting day, but the birthday party turned out to be a big hit. Little T still talks about it and likes to pretend to blow out his birthday candles. It made it all worth it. I have birthday pictures to share, but I’ll save that for another post!