3 of everything

It is a known thing in our house that when it comes to A,A, & C, there is no sense in buying 1 of anything. There must be 3..... 3 puzzles, 3 pairs of sunglasses (even though only 1 needs a pair), 3 swimsuits... yes, 3 is the magic number. Come home with any less and there are sure to be tears shed and comments like "Where's mine?"
Well, yesterday my lack in preparing for 3 bit me in the you know what and made for a pretty miserable swimming experience. A,A&C took a late nap and were told that if they took a nap, we could go swimming at the Aquatic Center. Sure enough the first thing out of Avery's mouth as she came down the hall after a 2 hour snooze was, "Can we go swimming now?" I wasn't very excited about going because our hay was getting cut which meant Wes was tied up and I'd be taking the kids myself, but if I didn't take them, an evening of nonstop "I want to go swimming" surely lied ahead. So, we quickly went into swimming prep mode - suits on, towels packed, flip flops and an extra change of dry clothes. We were set and out the door, or so I thought. As we drove into the driveway I saw goggles in the hands of Avery & Caleb. Crap! I forgot about goggles. There were no goggles in the hand for Austin and I immediately knew I was in trouble. The kids have become dependent on their goggles in the water and after a long hard nap, Austin was not in the best of moods so his shortage of goggles could bring tears. Tears there were.... lots of them. He almost didn't get out of the car so I carried him, tears flowing, to the pool. "I want my goggles. I want to go home and get my goggles. No, mama, we can't get in without my goggles." I managed to find a pair in the lost and found but they were no substitute for his blue goggles. 30 minutes he cried, 30 minutes! I felt like "that parent". I did my best to explain to him why we couldn't just go back home and get his goggles (the pool was only open another hour) and then I did my begging and pleading with him to stop crying. I even offered ice cream. When that didn't work all I could do was ignore his crying. Avery & Caleb needed my attention in the water so Austin clung close by pleading in my ears for his blue goggles. The tears finally stopped after Caleb to let Austin borrow his goggles, but even that took some major negotiating. Once Caleb's orange goggles went on Austin's head, tears were replaced with smiles and we were back in business.