That look.....

Carter has rotavirus. I'm almost positive that he got it from the nursery (shocking, I know), since he started having symptoms on Tuesday morning and the incubation period for the virus is 2 days. So I have been holed up in the house with the kids, doing my best to not infect everyone else with this disgusting bug, since Tuesday. I'm dying to go to the library, or shopping, or visit my sisters. But this morning I had to go the the grocery store. It was 7:30 am and Carter had already vomited twice - he was guzzling milk because I'm sure he's starving! I decided I had to get him some Pedialyte and maybe some crackers or something else really boring. So I got the kids dressed and combed their hair, and threw on some scrubs and flip-flops. I didn't think it was fair to shower and put on make-up while Carter waited in misery for me to take care of him.

The kids were awful at the store, as you would expect. We couldn't get Katelyn to sleep until after 10 last night and she woke up at 6 this morning (I'm so worried that she's getting this virus, too), so she was tired and cranky, and Carter was starving and had a stomach ache. They both cried (well, actually Carter was screaming) through the entire store, and I was so thrown by the situation that we went from one end of the store to the other twice, just to get our 6 or 7 items. I finally got to the checkout line and realized that we had forgotten crackers. I turned to the couple behind us and said, "You can go ahead. I just realized that we forgot something." They couldn't even get out of the way so that I could turn my giant monstrosity of a fire engine shopping cart around and get out of line. They were too busy staring at me, mouths agape, with that look that says, "What is wrong with you? Why can't you keep your kids from screaming? Why do you look like a homeless person? Don't you ever comb your hair?" I managed to push by them, but they never changed their judgemental expressions or even attempted to get out of my way.

Usually I find myself at home in Utah. There are so many kids here, and I often exchange sympathetic looks with other moms when our kids are being terrors in public. But there are still those people who either don't have kids, or just don't understand what it's like to have a hard day. It's so tempting to fight back when I feel like I'm being judged, to explain everything we've been through in the last 3 weeks, and how much sleep I haven't gotten. But I don't want to be mean, and I don't owe anyone an explanation. I'm doing the best I can.

Happy thought: I walked outside this morning and there was a nip in the air. I got excited at the thought of wearing jackets and cute pointy-toed boots. I think I'm ready for autumn.