Matt left this morning. He'll be away for three weeks. I'll be going it alone for the first time with two children.In preparation for this, I went to bed early last night. I knew I'd need a lot of sleep to get off to a good start.
It started out as a pretty normal day. Olivia did her normal begging for snacks and screaming for daddy when I wouldn't allow her to open and pour the Cheerios or Rice Crispies box on her own. She ate a decent lunch and I put her down for a nap. She had fallen asleep in the car an hour earlier for all of two minutes and, therefore, decided that was all the nap she needed. At least she played quietly in her crib for nearly two hours.
When she got up, she wanted to call Grandma and Grandpa McQuilton. After she entertained them both, I took the phone and started talking with my mother-in-law. Olivia migrated to the kitchen. After a couple of minutes, I noticed it was quiet. I walked into the kitchen. No Olivia, door open....DOOR OPEN!!!
I ran down into our arctic entryway and found that that door, too, was open. Oh no. I looked outside to where her new bike was sitting. No Olivia. This was serious. I looked to my left. My heart skipped several beats (had it been beating anyway?). There she was - running after the dog in the parking lot across my street. Barefoot. MP (military police) quickly getting out of his vehicle to apprehend said toddler and partner-in-crime.
I run down the street with my phone in hand, "Patty, I'll call you back."
I grabbed Olivia, said a quick hello and sorry to the MP, grabbed the dog by the collar and started to breath.
"Olivia, you know how to open the door now, huh!?"
"Mommy, I say, no Nali, no outside. He go outside. I go outside. I say, no Nali, NO NO NO!!! Come ear, Nalie! Nali outside, Mommy. Nali outside and I go outside!"
She's barely two and she's already blaming the dog!
While I was pregnant for Olivia, Matt and I envisioned she and Denali being partners-in-crime. Wasn't that conversation yesterday?
The rest of the afternoon, she went around the house proudly showing me how she can now open doors by herself.
Tomorrow, I'll cart two kids into Home Depot or Lowe's and buy door alarms or whatever they have to keep my child inside!
Note-to-Self #256: You are not a bad mother. This happens to everyone at some point? Or does it?
To my DH (dear husband) - I miss you! I have no idea how I survived 16-months without you!
3 comments:
Ashlyn has gotten out of our back gate and started down the street 3 times today. So, of course you are not a bad mom, and neither am I. I felt really bad about it though.
Ask my mom how many times I got into trouble when she and I were home alone and she was doing laundry or something... I ran away, ate paint, ate rock salt, balanced on the (many hundred pound) bookshelf to use the record player, which was five feet off the ground, etc., etc., etc. Amazing I'm alive. I'm sure you'll have more wonderful "where's Olivia?" moments!
I remember the time we were shopping at sears with you. You were about 3 maybe. I thought you were with dad and dad thought you were with me and we immediately went to the doors of sears, our first thought wasn't that you ran away, but that somebody snatched you. Just a minute went by and there was an announcement over the speaker asking for the LOST PARENTS OF NATALIE to come to the Lingerie department - What a scare...It happens to all of us.
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