MY FIRST IMPRESSION OF A CHAIN STORE BATHROOM...

in 2011, a supercenter opened near us. on my first visit i was most impressed with the clean bathrooms. i remember wondering if this was just because it was new but hoping it would stay so pristine.

the kids and i began walking to this store during the day and i continued to be impressed with the overall cleanliness of it. some would be deterred from walking due to our heat or crossing busy streets, i however have idealized walking to get groceries ever since spending a semester in england. since i have often wished i could walk more places here we make the most of the places we can get to on foot.

although we have walked there many times, the most memorable store visit of 2012 was the early morning in april i hopped in my car and went. i drove to the store to buy a pregnancy test and cheerios. since everyone knows the first pee of the day is the most reliable i potty-danced in the aisles and through the checkout then proceeded right to those clean bathrooms to find out the test results. it was there that i first found out mae was growing in me.

now it's 2013 and i am still frequenting the same store. one recent evening mae and i went for a stroll while evan and the big kids were out. we needed to get a few things and ended up wandered the aisles a little too long. the sun went down so we called evan and the big kids to be our pickup car. since they were still a few minutes away i slipped into a restroom stall to feed hungry mae while we waited.

i had to laugh at all the times (pre-motherhood) that i rolled my eyes at moms who had their whiny, full-diaper, tired kids out at the store late in the evening. as with most things i said i'd never do as a mom i am now one of those i rolled my eyes at. as i walked by this clean restroom mirror holding my sleepy, disheveled hair, full-diaper baby i stopped and smiled remembering another moment i had been in this restroom with mae. that morning i stood in this same spot and first found out about the girl that now sits on my hip.

(the good thing about this month's first impression coming on the twenty-eigth instead of the first is you only

have to wait three more days until the next first impression... assuming it acutally comes on the first)