You know the one. The 3-going-on-4-year-old wanting everything he sees and throwing a massive tantrum in the middle of the 5pm rush; the 18-month-old voicing her displeasure over the load in her nappy the size of Texas; the looks of pity and acknowledgment and “ah yes I’ve been there” from fellow parents and onlookers.

Yesterday I did not have that shopping trip. Yesterday I was grateful, for so many things.

It was just after 4pm when I put Quindy into the pram and set off to pick Chanbe up from kindy. I planned to pop to the dodgy Woolies which is just around the corner from where we live after picking Chanbe up, to get a few necessities, depending on how long the kids remained happy once we arrived. It was a lovely walk to the shop – about 1km – and the kids were happily chatting away.

We went through the shopping rules again, as we always do, and as I heard Chanbe say “no asking for food, no asking for drinks, no asking for toys” I praised him, only to be told “no Mama, I’m telling Quinny.” More praise.

We arrived and Chanbe immediately wanted to get out of the pram and help me shop. I took a breath and decided that this could work. He put his shoes on (no kid of mine is going to be walking around the Bronx Woolies barefoot) and we put the basket in his seat. The next 20 or so minutes were bliss. I would point to the item on the shelf, he would pick it up, give it to Quindy, and instruct her to put it in the basket. I ended up doing a slightly bigger shop than I had planned, simply because it went so well.

When we went to the checkouts, Chanbe wanted to show me the toy section. Here we go, I thought. But I said to him that it would be lovely for him to show me and then we would have to go and pay for our shopping. He pointed out a few things and that was it. Another sigh of relief and more praise for good choices.

I pushed our ginormous pram through the checkouts, paid for the shopping, gave the kids an apple each, and we were on our way.

This is how $60 of shopping fits nicely in the pram:

On the walk home, I thought about how grateful I was to have had such a positive experience. Parenting is hard work sometimes, and I know that I can get overwhelmed and bogged down by the monotony and challenges that this job brings. But yesterday, I chose to be grateful.

I’m grateful that I have 2 wonderful, healthy children who make me smile and make me proud.

I’m grateful for our awesome pram that I was a bit hesitant about buying initially, but that I haven’t regretted once. We get comments on it every time we go out which makes me love it more.

I’m grateful for this beautiful weather we are having. I struggled a lot with the summer months up here, but the last couple of weeks we’ve had lovely cool nights and beautiful days. The sun isn’t too hot, and there has been a nice stiff breeze to keep the flies away.

I’m grateful that I never have to worry about money to buy food and to pay for living costs.

I’m grateful for my fully-functioning, albeit slightly slow and sluggish body.

I’m grateful that even though I’m experiencing some not so fun ligament pain, I can get out and exercise which is so good for me at the moment.

I’m grateful that I have a loving husband who has a good job that enables me to be at home with the kids.

I could go on, but you get the idea. How can I not be grateful when I have all of this;

Wifey: 26 weeks with #3