Today.

Today. Technically I was up at 2:30 with the wee one, but we'll say today actually started at 6:15 when we rose for the second time of the day. Heidi was in a fabulous mood this morning singing and talking on her monitor as if to say "oh Mooooommmmyy...I am aaawaaake! Come in and seeeee me!" It's nice not to wake up to screaming. Though I will say, I'm more likely to lay and listen to the talking for longer because it's just so darn sweet.

Let me just cherish that memory.

Because Lord, the rest of the day...granted we did get all bundled up around 10 to go run errands. But in my defense, she had already eaten once, taken an hour long nap, woke up still in a good mood, was offered food again and adamantly refused (yes, adamantly). I explained her options to her prior to being buckled in "if you don't eat now, then you have to wait at least 40 minutes until we get to Wal-Mart." She agreed to the terms. Until about 7 minutes down the road when we're in the bank drive-through (depositing money in her savings account none-the-less) and she begins her day long scream-athon. I had to pull over a couple of blocks down any way because the car window would not roll up (sidenote: is it still called "rolling up" when it's an automatic window?). So I pacified her with her pacifier, which lasted just long enough to shut the door and climb back in the front seat. I once again explained the agreement we had come to, she did not want to eat when we left the house; therefore, she had to wait until Wal-Mart--it's not like this was a surprise, we'd been over it before.

So, we get to Wal-Mart, she's looking kind of groggy in the backseat, which leads me to think that maybe she slept on the way, but the mirror was in the truck, so I couldn't see her, so it's only a guess. At any rate, we're at the Tire Lube Express because I have to get my tires rotated and an oil change. We roll into the store and she activates the new Heidi-shriek that she's been working on. It's kind of cute, so I don't mind it. She even does it at a slightly muted level so as not to be extremely irritating. This lasts only long enough for me to get to the baby formula aisle and discover that Wal-Mart is out of the Wal-Mart brand formula that we use. What the heck. Now I have to side trip to another Wal-Mart.

Meanwhile, the Heidi-shriek has turned into a Heidi cry and I decide to try to feed her again. I take her back to the little room where you wait for your car to be done and get the bottle out. The second she sees the bottle it's instant freak out. Not sure that I've ever met another baby that hates eating, but mine does. Manage to get her to take two drinks. Scream. Repeat. Finally, the tire lube lady says that my car is done. Normally it takes like 3 hours but this time it was only about 45 minutes. I think they felt bad for me with the screaming kid. Or they just wanted some peace and quiet.

Off we go to the second Wal-Mart of the day. To make a long story short, they don't have the Wal-Mart brand formula either so we have to settle for *gasp* the name-brand formula (yeah at $8 more a pop, I do kind of gasp). Needless-to-say, Heidi screamed in this Wal-Mart too. We did a quick diaper change, which didn't appease her at all. I assured her that when we got to our destination in 20 minutes she could be unbuckled and freed and we'd have warm milk.

If I was a smart mom I'd have just driven around for 2 hours because what she really needed was a nap, but I'm not smart, and I was hungry and meeting a friend for lunch, so 20 minutes later we disembarked at our 3rd stop of the day. I only knocked one chair over on my way to the table with her. And only an ounce or so of milk spilled all over my pant leg when I uncapped the bottle. And, hey, I did manage to eat my wrap while bouncing Heidi on my knee and retrieving her rings off of the floor time and time again. I won't mention how the feeding went other than that I'm pretty sure she could have sucked on my pant leg and gotten just as much milk.

Off to my haircut. Thank goodness Em came with to watch her since she gladly screamed and shrieked for the entire 45 minutes of the haircut. I take that back, she did do some undecorating for a minute or so which occupied her attention.

And I still had to stop and get dog food. But at least the windshield washer fluid was just frozen, not empty. That saved me a stop.

Got home, and Josh got home a few minutes later. Fast forward 5 minutes. Josh says something about her crying. My response: You've been listening to her for 5 minutes, I've been listening to it all day.

This is my life. She's lucky she's cute.