Today was not a typical day. First off, it was a PD day. And so Cole was at home. My dad spent the night so he could babysit for us. But last night, Amelia caught a G.I. bug and threw up from 3 a.m. on. Besides that, I've been hacking up a lung for almost a month and so between the coughing and the littlest Peron puking, I hardly slept a wink. So I was home, with sick Amelia, and Cole was home and my dad. For the morning, I laid around with Amelia and tried to doze and Dad and Cole assembled and decorated a gingerbread house on the dining room table.
Dad went home after lunch and so I was left alone with both kids. By three in the afternoon, I had a good old fashioned case of cabin fever. Convinced the house was crawling with germs, I'd disinfected all the surfaces on the main level and I'd opened all the windows, but I finally decided we had to leave the house.
Leaving the house is a brave choice when you've got a puker. But it had to be done. So we cleaned up the playdough and all the playdough toys that were littered over the kitchen tiles and I instructed the kids to gear up. Amelia was all too happy to put on her shoes (on the wrong feet and with no socks). Cole spent five minutes digging through the front closet trying to local his other kanga. And as I grabbed my purse in the front entrance way, I even thought to bring a big bath towel (should a barf-attack happen upon us in our travels). As an afterthought, we remembered Cole's coat, but as I remembered we'd need the double stroller and it was in the car, I realized as I patted my pockets that my keys were M.I.A.
Then I recalled a few hours earlier I'd let Amelia take my keys off the kitchen table. I'd known in my heart it was a bad idea. But I was just too tired to try to distract her with something else. I watched her carry them around in a little halloween trick-or-treating bucket and I made a mental note: I must make sure I watch where she puts those.
Now here we were. And no keys in sight. So I asked Amelia where the keys were and she said, "I dunno!" Cole and I set about searching through the living room, dining room, the back entranceway, the stairs, the upper landing, the bathroom.... no halloween bucket anywhere. I kept thinking that if we could only find that halloween bucket, we'd surely find the keys!
Finally, I gave up. I took the spare keys and we headed out the door. We pushed into the cold northerly wind and got ourselves to the grocery store. I bought raspberries because they were on sale. I bought bananas because they say they're one of those foods a kid can keep down when their tummy is upset. And I bought english muffins because.... well... I just like english muffins.
And as our little salute to humankind, we got into the aisle marked "Cashier in Training. Please get in this line." Feeling like it had been a fairly good outting, albeit still a bit disgruntled that I'd let Amelia steal my keys and stash them, I was fumbling in my purse for my wallet when my fingers came to that familiar form and then I heard that jingly sort of key sound. I sighed. How often have I lost my keys in my purse?
I leaned over, rubbed Amelia's head and whispered, "Sorry, Kid. My bad."
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