Blog Material

Nate had an overnight trip this week, and it seems to always happen that my best blog-material-moments happen while Nate is away. I think the reason for this is two-fold. First, we are all a little off when "Daddy" is gone. Emotions are often heightened, and our normal routine is just different. Second, when Nate isn't here for me to vent to, I vent to the blog. :) So without further ado:

We did our weekly Walmart shopping trip yesterday morning. I usually start in the nonfood section and then end with the food so it is out of the refrigerator the least amount of time possible. As I walked towards the nonperishables, Miles looked at me and said, "poopy." "Okay, Buddy. I'll head to the bathroom after I finish up over here." I finished the nonfood items and headed to the back. As we traveled, Miles continued to express his need, with increased frequency and intensity. I parked the cart near the bathroom, and Miles screamed at me, "POOPY!" I leaned in to him to whisper a message, as I try to do when I feel like screaming at him, and as I began to say, "Miles, please stop yelling," he gave me a huge head butt. Forehead to forehead. I was beside myself! What is a mom to do with that? And just when I thought I was at my witt's end, the bathroom was "Out of Operation." Really? Do I really have to walk all the way to the front of the store with both of my children, one of whom is shouting "POOPY" at me in order to take my potty training kid to the toilet? Needless to say, I changed a poopy diaper for the first time in several days that morning.

Thursday night was Bolivar Day at the Park at the Springfield Cardinals. Our family had tickets before we knew Nate was going to be traveling, so I invited my friend Sarah to join us. We arrived at the game and quickly found a playground. Sarah left to use the restroom, and I helped Miles go down the slide. When Sarah returned, we were regrouping to go find our seats, and I could not find Cooper anywhere! He was gone! I asked Sarah to stay with Miles, and I rushed to find someone who could help me find Cooper. The woman at the lemonade stand was the first employee I came to, so I rushed to her and said, "I can't find my son - can you help me find my son?" Another worker with a radio came quickly and I explained the situation. She used her radio to alert the stadium workers that a 3 year old was missing. They immediately locked down all the gates and began to look. I couldn't stand still and walked around in a frenzy, looking for Cooper between answering the lady's questions. "What color is his hair?" "The same color as mine!" "What color is his shirt?" "Gray - just like my shirt!" (We all - and I mean EVERYONE - had matching shirts for Bolivar Day at the Park.) "So - if you were to call your hair a color, what would that be?" "LIGHT BROWN!"

Within five minutes, they had found a little boy without his mom and indicated to us that we needed to meet them near gate 2. Not long after that I saw a man walking towards me, holding my child. I grabbed Cooper and held on to him so tight. We hugged and cried for several seconds. That was one of the most terrifying experiences of my entire life. For the rest of the evening, Sarah and I did not let go of the kids' hands - she held on tight to one and I held on tight to the other. I am so thankful for that girl! I knew that I couldn't take my kids to a baseball game by myself, and I was SO RIGHT! :) When I was by myself, I lost one of them! My thoery is that Cooper saw Sarah leave for the restroom and followed her, thinking we were all going somewhere. I asked him later where he was going, and he said he was looking for me. Poor guy thought I walked off and left him!

So besides that few minutes of terror, it was a very enjoyable evening. We didn't see much of the game, but the experience was very fun! And I left praising God for my sons and His protection over them!