Mama Confessions #1

The other day I was shopping with a friend (and Sam) when the little man who had been sleeping so contentedly suddenly awoke and was hungry. I dug around in my bag to discover I had no bottle in his diaper bag. We were nearing the end of our shopping so I tried to keep him happy with little swigs from my water bottle, because he finds that fascinating. But that was a short lived distraction. We got up to the counter to pay and my son was wailing uncontrollably. I dug through my bag and had not even a toy to distract him with. I was defeated, and felt like a horrible mom as people judged me waiting in line to purchase some jeans while my infant screamed and I did nothing to feed or appease him. SIGH.
I had purchased a simple pair of foam flip flops at the store and this finally occurred to me on my way out, so I grabbed one (A brand new, never been worn, clean, foam flip flop) and handed it to my son. I am sure you know, it went directly to his mouth.
We had one more stop to make, just to grab dinner before heading home... but here I am walking into Panera with an infant chewing happily on a flip flop and everyone looking going, is that child eating a flip flop?
IT'S CLEAN! IT HAS NEVER BEEN WORN! SOMETIMES YOU GOTTA DO WHAT YOU GOTTA DO! I wanted to yell at the store. But I didn't. Because the flip flop was quickly losing it's magic and he was crying again, and we purchased our food and bolted outta there before someone could call child protective services.
That day, I was mortified and felt like a terrible parent. Every day since then, when thinking about it I have giggled... and I only wish I had taken a picture of my son chewing on that flip flop because it was just such a strange and unexpected toy for an infant. Ever since then I have done a much better job keeping my bag (and also my car, you know, just in case) stocked with a clean bottle and toy.
But just add that to the list of reasons I am not winning mother of the year award.