On my own with Finnegan

My mother has gone home and Doug is working during the days and I'm
here alone with Finnegan. Today, it was time for me to go to the mall
with Finnegan on my own. I've been worrying about this for some time
now because I know how difficult it will be. If I think about all the
things that I have to do before leaving the house, I'll get
overwhelmed. So, I have to approach the trip like I used to get ready
for a convoy mission when I was a military police officer. We had to
be able to move, shoot and communicate. With Finnegan I need to be
able to move, feed, diaper and communicate with him.

There are many essential tasks required to complete my mission. First,
I must plan the mission, the route of travel and determine the start
and finish times to coordinate with feeding and sleeping. Second, is
to prepare all the equipment and supplies that I'll need. Transporting
Finnegan requires lots of specialized equipment; car seat, stroller,
diaper bag with all the sub-components and he also requires special
handling. Once all the items have been prepared and inspected for the
trip I have to load them up into the car making sure that Finnegan is
the last to be strapped into the car seat. It takes almost an hour to
properly prepare for a mission because Finnegan needs to be fed before
we leave in order to make sure that his comfort level is at optimum
capacity.

So, I got everything packed, inspected and put Finnegan in the car. My
worst fear was that he would cry the whole way and I would feel awful
about having him strapped down in the car seat. As luck for have it,
he went right to sleep and didn't wake up until after we arrived at our
destination. In the parking lot I decided to feed Finn before going
inside and he was happy about that. It was a good decision too because
he didn't fuss at all during the shopping expedition which helped me a
lot because I was having trouble maneuvering the stroller in the
cramped stores and trying to keep my sanity in tack. The hard part was
going to the grocery store. How do people put the car seat on top of
the grocery cart without it falling off? I couldn't figure it out, so
I just put the car seat in the cart and put what groceries I could
around the car seat. As I was leaving the grocery store, I noticed a
daycare room that the store had set up for free childcare while mothers
did their shopping. I'll have to consider it for next time.

I got back to the car and with everything loaded and accounted for we
drove home without any incidents. Once we were successfully settled
into the house and the groceries put away, Finn and I snuggled on the
couch for some quiet time and he went right to sleep. I felt good
about our trip to the mall. There were many moments of bumbled
attempts at getting the stroller in the trunk or getting the car seat
out of the car, but Finn didn't seem to mind and I was grateful for
that. With practice these activities will go smoother and I'm sure to
have plenty of opportunities to get it right the next time.