Boots, Strollers, and Skinny Jeans

01 Mar Boots, Strollers, and Skinny Jeans

The boys still were not completely adjusted to the idea of sharing their daytime mother-figure with another baby. Mealtimes were a struggle. Naptime routines elongated. Even the happy-go-lucky playtimes were spent fighting each other for the only toy in the entire house they both wanted…at the same time.

Life with two kids was different, to be sure. But as hard as this was on them, I had no idea how hard it was on me, how much I desperately needed a ray of sunshine. Scratch that: just one little sliver would suffice.

No idea, that is, until I opened the front door.

There sat a box. A cardboard box. A glorious, brown, cardboard box with my name on it!  And inside that box lay not just a sliver but an entire ball of sun—new, tall, super-stylish winter boots.

I raced to the bedroom to find a pair of skinny jeans (new, tall, super-stylish winter boots only go with skinny jeans; surely you knew that!). To my dismay, the only pair I owned were maternity. Kind of defeats the “skinny” part of the jean.

But I was not to be stopped. The fat skinny jeans and I dipped deep into the boot, and magic happened. The food was still piled on the floor, the boys were still wrestling over that one toy, and I (wait for it) had a smile on my face! Which was about to get even bigger…

Buzz, buzz.

The text message read: “Your package is ready to be picked up at Walmart.” My new double stroller, the symbol of freedom and getting out of the house, was ready to be picked up!

My skinny jeans, winter boots, and two darlings made record time out the door (59 minutes and 44 seconds), picked up the stroller, and arrived back home with thirty minutes to spare before Darling II would be picked up.

Sadly, it took me the entire thirty minutes to open the box, but never fear: I still had my boots and smile on.