THAT mom

Yesterday seemed like an awesome park day. The weather's starting to get really nice, so I do everything I can to get the kids out every day. After Matt took a nap, I packed up everyone and headed for the castle park. Everyone else in Kitsap County thought it'd be a nice park day too, cause it was packed! No worries. Since Alex hates the car, he spends most of our short trips screaming. I told the boys to stay in the van until I had Alex secure in the sling. Since he was already mad, this took a good 5 minutes and the kids got super anxious. Nathan had unbuckled Matt by this time, so he was ready to go too. I finally got Alex situated and went around to the other side to let the other three out. When I opened the door Nate and Drew bolted. Nathan looked something like this: STEP...STEP...STEP... FACEPLANT! SCREAM! Me in my head: Oh, crap! And I took the first aid kit out the car two days ago! I get Matt out, and mind you we are parked on the opposite side of the entrance so there is a dirt drive to cross. Nathan is half in the road screaming and holding his knee. (I also remembered to tell him to wear the pants with the hole in the knee so if they got too dirty when he was playing, oh well.) Now that hole left him open to a tiny... tiny.... not even bleeding scrape. I hand Matt off to Drew and tell him to take Matt into the gate so I can get Nate out of the road. OK, good. Alex's binky pops out and he starts again. Drew dashes for the gate, Matt following. Binky back in Alex's mouth, now Nate. I told Nate he needed to get out of the road and go into the park. "I can't!!! Whaaa!" Meanwhile some Dad coming into the park asks Nate if he needs help. I tell him he's fine, but thank you. I look up to see Matt dashing across the dirt road towards a parked old VW beetle. So I leave Nathan in the road to chase after Matt. Matt falls, and really hurts himself. I yell at Nate about the oncoming car and he barely gets onto the sidewalk. Matt is screaming in one arm fighting me for his freedom, and Alex's binky pops out... again. Three screaming kids. Another mom comes over and says to Matt, "you can play with my kids" She asks if she can take him in and by now I'm welcoming the help. I get Alex's binky back in, Matt's screaming with the stranger, and Nate still won't walk. I go back to him and say, "I don't have the patience for this. Stop being dramatic, it's just a scrape. Get up and walk!" He does so, whimpering and holding his knee as he walks. I had him sit inside the park to calm down, and rescued the other mom from a flailing Matt who's totally angry now. He doesn't want to play. He throws himself down, and kicks and screams. Binky pops out. Mad Alex. Nate's on the bench, whining. Where's Drew? Somewhere in fantasy land. I'm not sure how many parents pitied me, how many thought I was a bad mom, or how many thought this was my first day as the nanny, but they were all watching. To top it off, the whole time I had a giant green smudge on the side of my face from a marker, that I forgot to wash off. Awesome. I think we'll be sticking around the house a little more often.