One of my finer mommy moments

I'm not sure I've blogged about this one, although it's a classic so most of you who know me IRL have heard it. And no, it's not the time I locked T1 in the car, although that is another classic.

T1 was 3-4, it's all kind of a blurr, blocked out by alcohol and my ability to repress traumatic events, I'm sure.
We were doing our grocery shopping, no small task with any child. Through Sams Club he'd become increasingly loud and annoying, until he eventually hit the meltdown. The yelling, the defiant NO, the kicking, grabbing stuff of the shelves. No? Just me kid? Eh, whatever.
So, in an attempt to simply get through the check out, I took him out of the cart and let him walk. That worked for about 30 seconds.
Here's the thing...my cart is full of groceries we need and it would make him immensely happy to just leave rather then have to stand in line for another 10 minutes. Sorry, I'm not leaving just to come back and have to do this yet again another day. I do not enjoy grocery shopping that much.
So, we're in line and then meltdown turns in to straight spawn of satan. On the floor, kicking and screaming. I'm sure I'm getting all sorts of stares while I just nudge him along, waiting my turn.
Finally, some poor childless girl comes over and offers my screaming brat of a child a balloon to make him happy. Yes, let's reward this behavior. The balloon did make him happy for, oh, another 30 seconds.

We did manage to get out of the store...and for the record you can hold a 3-4 year old in one arm and manuever a huge cart of food out to the car at the same time without dropping the child or ramming the cart in to a car, or person. Really, you can. Try it, I dare ya.

On the way home I'm pretty sure I saw his head spin exorcist style...or maybe that was mine? He'd managed to grab the diaper bag that was in backseat and took the extra clothes out. I could see him in my mirror and I knew what he was about to do. By this point, mommy had hit the breaking point. I warned him NOT to throw those clothes and yet before I knew it, I had toddler pants sailing through the air and smacking me in the head.
Yes, my head did spin.
I grabbed his balloon, grabbed a pen from the center console and popped that sucker. Immediate tears from the backseat. Sobbing tears, comments on how he couldn't believe I did that.
Hey kid, I warned you not to throw those pants.