One of those days

Today began early--too early--and involved a certain three-year-old's poop on the carpet. It was a disagreeable morning between me and him and it was with mixed feelings that I put him on the bus. Fortunately, the short time of separation erased his memory of my sucky mom morning and he had a fun time at preschool and a very productive speech therapy session. And God is good because my sweet husband cleaned the house while I was at the therapy with John.

So the plan was to have a low-key afternoon with plenty of playing and not so much disciplining (do you like how I plan for my kids to be well-behaved? It doesn't hurt to hope!). One thing we enjoy around here is taking the 1 block walk to get our mail. This afternoon we got all ready, put everyone's shoes on, grabbed the mail key, locked and shut the front door, and remembered that we (uh, I) had forgotten the house key. Thankfully I had my phone and called Billy, who was at work (35 minutes away). But, alas, he didn't know any secret way into the house.

The next plan of action was to check all the windows and doors. Alas, I'm a thorough locker, so even our side gate is locked (it's about seven feet high). But we still needed to check every entrance, you know? Since the gate was locked, we would have to climb it. I gathered up our stepping stones and made a little stool about 18 inches high. I climbed up, grabbed John, and gently threw him over the gate. Next up: Hava. She didn't mind being tossed to John, who kindly caught her so she wouldn't get a face-ful of rocks. The most elegant part of the operation was when I hoisted myself up and over the gate. I was praying that my neighbors were busy watching TV or something so they wouldn't have to witness the event. (and yes, all the windows and doors were locked--good thing we risked it all to check.) The whole time, John is saying "Home, I want home." Yeah, bud, me too. There was no choice but to go back over the gate (this time using cinder blocks) and head down to the park while we waited for the door to unlock itself. The good news is that we are not at the park any longer...a very hot police officer came and kindly opened the door for us. We were so grateful that we all kissed him and asked him to flash his lights at us.

What a day!

P.S. Congratulations to my sweet friend with a sweet pea on the way--you know who you are!