with the good, comes the bad

I suppose the universe is always seeking to maintain some average vibe between euphoria and misery. Today, has been the day to provide some balance to some of my better days as an at-home dad. Four has just been a handful. Pestering his sister. Pestering me. Just pestering. For her part, LuLu has been whining. All day. To be fair, she didn't sleep well last night and is undoubtedly tired, but that doesn't make it any easier on the ears. After lunch, I decided to be bold and run some errands despite the behavior and demeanor of my pint-sized companions. It seems that the grocery store is where it always hits the fan. Today was no different. It was actually embarrassing. The two beasties were climbing in, out, and on the cart. Fighting over who sat where. Over whose seatbelt was whose. I wanted to crawl under a bag of flour. Unfortunately, we weren't at the bulk foods store. To top it all off, and this is noone's fault but my own, when I got to the checkout and the clerk had rung up my entire order, only then did I realize that I did not have my credit card or debit card. I have been taking them on my bike rides along with my driver's license in case of emergency. They never made it back into my wallet. As I'm trying to tell the clerk this story of my flakiness LuLu starts crying hysterically. Like someone's hurting her hysterically. I'm trying to maintain some semblance of calm and serenity, but inside I am certain that my head will explode.