Weird Day!

My day started out with a phone call from the neighbor saying her kids had strep so could I take the carpool. Thank goodness I was actually up...I've been a bit lazy in the mornings lately. I took the kids to school and figured since I already had Preston loaded in the car, I would swing by my SIL Amy's house to get some flour (she has a wheat grinder and I don't so I keep a bag of wheat there and stop by when I am feeling somewhat domestic). I got my flour and got to work making two double batches of bread. That's 8 big loaves people! Why you ask? Well, April kind of slipped through my fingers what with spring break and all and I still hadn't done visiting teaching. Trying to coordinate my schedule, my companion's schedule and four other ladies' schedules with only four days left in the month seemed like an impossible task (especially since we prefer to try to go without our kids) so I figured I'd bake bread and at least do a "drive by" visiting teaching moment.

In the middle of my bread breaking morning, I found out Marcos had to sit in on an interview at 1:00 (he's on the hiring committee at work) and he was going to be my babysitter at 1:30 while I went to a meeting. Crap! So I called a couple friends and found someone to watch the kids for an hour (thanks Jamie). Got that over and done with and then went home. No sooner do I walk in the door than I realize I am out of like 5 essential things so even though I wasn't planning on shopping until Wednesday, I loaded the kids up once again to head to the store. Thank goodness I did because looking at the clock and seeing it was 3:30 reminded me I had scheduled Preston's well check with the doctor at 4:00. How could I forget that? I was reviewing my calendar last night. Sheesh! I paused for a brief moment to ponder whether I had time for both and decided I could make it. I rushed through the store and then headed out to my car (they didn't have two things I needed anyway...AWESOME! Now I get to make another trip to a different store later).

Here's where my day gets weird. I walked to the van and saw a lady out there looking at my rear bumper. I didn't think much of it and when I saw her van full of kids I tried to be friendly and said hello. She ignored me and started speaking to her kids in another language (I'm thinking maybe Russian). I loaded the kids and watched her go to the front of her car, bend down and inspect the front of her car. Wait a minute. Did she hit my car? What do I say? What do I do? She looks nervous and yells at her kids again (all 5 of them) and they all hop in on or around the shopping cart and she takes off to do her shopping. What the...? I went back to my bumper and sure enough there's a nice decent-sized scratch. It took me a minute to figure out what to do. I mean, who hits a car, sees the owner come to the car and then walks away without saying a word. I'm trying to give her the benefit of the doubt. Is there really a language barrier and she doesn't know a word of English? Is she a mail order bride and afraid her husband would beat her if she hit another car? (I know, my brain takes me places it ought not). So I decided after the hitting of the pole incident in San Diego, the van was plenty broken in and I would let it go. Of course, I did note her license plate number just in case. But I drove off with a really odd feeling about people and life in general. I know there are "hit and runs" all the time, but I said hello to this lady, walked by her, and even had to attempt to suck in my belly (it doesn't work, but I always think it will) when she walked down the same side as me at the same time. And she didn't say a word to me. WEIRD!

So I sped off to the doctor's office making it just in time for Preston's appointment. Last Monday we started working on potty training (that's a whole other post, but just so you know where I'm at here). I took him to the bathroom before we went to the store and then right after we got to the doctor's office. It hadn't been quite an hour and he's been going only once an hour, but he had had a bit more to drink so he was wet. Thankfully he had on a pull-up so it wasn't a major crisis. But I was bummed because he's been doing pretty well with the pee thing (the poop is a whole other story that I will definitely be blogging about in a post in the near future). Anyway, so I sat down to wait after our bathroom break. The kids were looking at the fish tank and I decided to text Marcos to tell him Preston's pull-up was wet. He likes to be updated on such trivial things. I kid you not, the text went like this "Dang it. Preston just went pee in his pull-up." Now I'm not a super duper texter like "kids these days" but it did not take me long to text that to him. I hit send and kid you not, I hear "Mommy, mommy" in a very frightened, distant voice. What the crap? Where is my child? Dylan is at the fish tank and Preston is nowhere to be seen. But...I can hear him. I follow the sound and realize he has pushed the elevator button, hopped on and probably pushed the button to go up or down. Crap! I don't even know where the elevator takes him. I pushed the button hoping he was right there and the door would open, but the light went on so I knew he was in route somewhere. Whilst in the midst of my fear, I glanced up to see all the disapproving stares from the other moms in the waiting room. I'm sure I looked like the worst mother ever. That lady just sits there texting on her phone while her 3 year old gets on the elevator and she has no idea. Seriously people....I made 8 freaking loaves of bread this morning. I'm not THAT bad! I sent Dylan down the only stairs I could find and told him to wait by the elevator and see if Preston came out. I waited at the top in case he was still on the elevator when it came back up. Then I hear Dylan, "Hi Preston. Come here. Did you ride the elevator?" What a good big brother he is.

After my fear subsided and I avoided the angry stares for what seemed like an eternity, we finally got called back to the exam room. We waited, I read books (see I'm still a good mom, right?) and then the doctor saw Preston. We talked all things 3-year-old (stubbornness, potty training, melt downs, more social interaction...and statistics). For those who may have some doubt, the kid is in the 95th percentile for both height and weight. And he's been such a different learner than most kids. It's tough because I think when people see him, they assume he's more like 4...but he's barely 3 and been behind in a lot of things. So it can be a challenge when people think he should be way ahead of where he is developmentally (like the lady in his music class who acted SHOCKED when she found out he wasn't potty trained). Hello lady, I haven't even started trying yet. Now are you surprised! Yep, bad mom award once again. I hate people sometimes. Not really, I just say that, but I do hate how judgmental people can be. Have you not heard of compassion and understanding? May you one day have a challenge that helps you realize the world isn't completely perfect so you can relate to others a bit more. Anyway...sorry. Bitter Maria emerges and shows her ugly side. Wow!

So yeah, I'm the crazy lady who decides to make two double batches of bread, needs last minute babysitters, runs out of stuff and has to go to the store on a day other than shopping day, almost forgets a doctor's appointment, gets hit by a car and realizes it but doesn't say anything to the lady speaking Russian, LOATHES potty training, and who loses her 3 year old on the elevator while texting her husband. Yep, in case you wondered, that's me!