Small Joys of Being a Mother

SO FUNNY: In Target with Simon and Clare. Against my better judgement, I let them get out of the cart towards the end of our trip. They sprint off ahead of me. I am pushing the mega-ton cart (the one that holds two kids sitting in the front contraption, then there's the actual cart itself) loaded with stuff and Violet perched precariously in her car seat on top. So I am trying to catch up with my runaway children, but going kind of slow so Violet doesn't topple off. I can see Clare and Simon running towards the Halloween section. They run through a decorated arch, then start screaming. I have never heard them scream so loud! They both turn around with petrified looks on their faces and bolt back to me. Now they're both in tears and clinging to my legs. Turns out there was a motion-activated bigger-than-life electronic creepy skeleton on the other side of that arch - just waiting for errant children to run by him so he can scare them back to their mothers.