Rookie

Some days I feel like I have my act together and run my life like an adult. And then I have those days when one might think that I had no idea what I am doing.

For example, a couple of weeks ago at church Jason took Ben to the bathroom to change his diaper and the changing pad was soaked. Consequently, all of Ben's clothes were soaked. I asked Jason if maybe it could possibly anyway at all perhaps be just water?? Riiiight. And we, parents of three children, had managed to pack a diaper bag without spare clothes for Ben. I know that he is past the baby stage, but we really should always have spare clothes for a three hour stint away from home. Especially when we are supposed to be dressed nicely even. So, we stripped him down to a diaper and I canvassed other mothers of similar sized children for extra clothes. No go. We sent him to Nursery naked with a diaper. Afterwards, the Nursery Leader told me he was a joy to have and if stripping down the other kids to their diapers would make them happy, she would totally do that. So, that was good, but he was the only child without clothes that day. And you are thinking to yourself, that is no big deal. But, think about the last time your child was without clothing for most of church...

Seven years in Virginia and I still think like a Westerner. For the life of me, I cannot comprehend or believe or remember that when it rains here, it rains for a while. Like a day. Or more. I can't believe that the rain will last more than about 15 minutes and therefore plan accordingly. Which explains Thursday. It rained Wednesday afternoon and night. It was raining Thursday morning. I had Josh run out to catch the bus without a raincoat or an umbrella, because the rain probably wouldn't last all day. I took Michael to preschool in the same condition because the rain probably wouldn't last that long. I took Ben to the doctor and had to sprint while carrying him into the building because I didn't carry an umbrella because the rain would surely stop soon. I left the sliding back door open because the rain had to end soon. (Okay, I did wise up on that pretty quickly when the carpet started getting wet and did close the door.) Then, to show off all my intelligence, I soaked my feet wearing sandals to book club that night because there was a veritable river running through the parking lot since it had been raining for over a day at that point.

And last, but definitely not least, Ben and diapers. Ben figured out how to take off his diaper a while back. Which is fine. He doesn't do it all that often. But, still, I should have known. I did know. I just didn't think about it. I should never have put him down for a nap without a onesie or some pants on. Never. I went to go get him up from his nap the other day after taking my time. Time was my enemy. Because, as far as I could reconstruct from the crime scene, he had too much time. He had taken the diaper off and walked to the side of the crib and peed out between the bars. Okay, that is not too bad. Then, he pooped and it was EVERYWHERE. His face, head, back, hands, legs, diaper area, sheets, both blankets, his bear and the crib itself. Nice. And I can't even say I had no idea it could happen.

Oh, yeah, I've totally got everything under control over here.