In which I become 'That Mom' with 'That Baby'

I'm Dutch.  Okay.  I'm American.  But, my heritage is Dutch.  I'm pretty proud of that.  I own wooden shoes, make casseroles with cream soup, plant tulips in my yard, shop with coupons and go to Tulip Time.  (Yeah, we're real authentic over here.)

But, when Tillie was born, we did decide that she would need a cute little baby sized Dutch costume for Tulip Time.  Hey, everyone else is doing it.  I didn't really know where everyone got them.  I think I assumed that most of them had Grandmas who sewed them.  A lot probably did.  Well, I only have one Grandma living, and she's not a sewer.

Then, I heard that there is a Dutch Costume sale ever Spring at the Civic Center.  (It's put on by the Holland Area Newcomers.)  My friends Rebecca and Shanda got some the year before for their kids.  This year I found out about it from being a fan of Tulip Time on facebook.  Sweet!

It was from 5-8p, so I offered to pick Kizie up from school in Zeeland, take her out for dinner and then to the sale with Tillie and me.  At 4:30 we parked at the Civic Center, but I wanted to run to Tip Toes to pick something up.  At 5 to 5p, we entered the Civic and saw a ridiculously long line.  It wound around the lobby and for some reason, I thought it went down some stairs.  I decided to leave Kizie and Tillie in line and I would bring the stroller to the car and grab my sling.  (Yes, I left my 8 year old sister with the baby.  It was a line of mom's in Holland buying Dutch Costumes.  It doesn't get much safer than that.)

At 5 a woman announced that they had a lot of volunteers out sick, so the process might take a little longer than usual.  There were going to let about 20 people in every 10 minutes or so.

Here's where I made my bad choice.  I assumed it was going to be like a craft bazaar, where you show up, walk around, pick you item and leave.  I thought it was wise to not be loaded down with anything.  I left the diaper bag with toys, snacks and the bottle in the car.  Kizie left her book and drink in the car.  I left the stroller in the car so it wouldn't get in the way.

For the first 20 minutes, Tillie was fine.  Then she got a little bored.  Oh, a spoon in my purse!  Look at the spoon!  Here's a piece of paper!  She was happy again.  Around 5:30-5:40 we got to enter the room with the costumes.  There were not many left in the sizes  I was looking for.  (One for Tillie and one for Cadence, my cousin's daughter).  I found our two and was happy.  Then, I realized we needed to wait in the lines to match tickets, count items, bag and pay.  It was then I let Tillie chew on her hair bow.  That made her happy for about another 20 minutes.

It was the last 10 minutes where she just melted down.  I set her on the floor and that was Just. Not. Okay.  She wouldn't stop crying.  The loud cry.  Someone even offered us a banana.  (She was hungry, so it's just too bad she doesn't like bananas.)  Another paper to chew on and she she was quiet again.  But, for a little bit, she was the loud crying baby and I had nothing that would stop it.

All because I tried to plan ahead an carry nothing.  I thought I was making it easy!  Ah, live and learn.  When were were back in the car, Kizie gave Tillie a bottle and she giggled the whole way home.

And, now we have a cute costume for Tulip Time.  Oh, does she look cute in it.  But, you're just going to have to wait for some tulips for me to take her picture by.