Adventures with Adrienne

A few days ago Adrienne and I got another chance to spend the day together, just the two of us. Marianna had some ballet shoe shopping to do with her grandmother in anticipation of starting her first ballet class in September, and that left Adrienne and I to do the always exciting, but not necessarily eventful, running of the errands alone.

I've told you before that I love using the car time as quality time with the kids because it is in those rare moments that I have a captive audience. So we were singing and talking, practicing animal sounds, and having fun when we pulled up at the post office. This is one of our easy errands, just in and out. I get the mail at the PO Box for my work, and the box is located conveniently right inside the door. It's usually a 60 second round trip errand.

Most of the time I just grab my keys and the kids and head in, not even bothering with my purse or phone. But as soon as we arrived, I realized that an explosive diaper was going to detain us a little. Adrienne is cutting FOUR teeth right now, and she is suffering the consequences. She's thrown up, lost her appetite, slept like it was going out of style, and had a series of really horrible diapers. I've been feeling for her big time, willing those teeth to hurry up and come in so that she can go back to being herself. Until then, Adrienne and I are suffering through some diapers that are causing both of us some distress. This was definitely one of those diapers, and as explosive diapers are wont to do, it had spread to her dress.

Thankfully this was our last stop, and I knew I could get her cleaned up just as soon as we were home. I strapped on the diaper, sans diaper cover (for reasons you can guess), and headed in for a speedy mail pick up. It wasn't until I got to my box that I realized not only was I without diaper cover, I was without keys as well.

Then I remembered that I had locked the car. Following on the heels of that memory, was the memory that my phone, along with the keys and the diaper cover, was also locked safely away in my car. The other thing I forgot to mention? Right before running errands, I had run three miles in the high 80 degree heat. I was so soaked in sweat that I had exchanged my drenched tank top for one of my dad's over sized running shirts that was so long it almost covered my shorts.

So there I was, looking unshowered, dirty, and like something out of a fashion nightmare, toting a baby who used to be clean but was now dirty, diaper-coverless, and dressed in an outfit that had diaper remains drying on the hem, wondering what my next step should be considering that my keys were locked in my car, underneath a pile of diapers and wipes. It occurred to me that a phone call was a necessity, and knowing my odds were pretty much zero on being able to use the phone in the post office, I stood outside, debating about whether I was brave enough to ask to borrow someone's cell phone. I quickly decided I was not.

Plan B ended up being to walk to the little fabric store next door to the post office. I figured there I could at least patronize the store and get a little fabric in exchange for a phone call. They graciously welcomed me to their phone, and I pulled that shiny AAA card out—the one that had been suffering from lack of use for as long as I've had it—and began dialing the help line. They very efficiently took my information and told me that someone would be there with an hour and a half. I know that's not bad, but when the extent of the scenery involves the outside of the post office and the entertainment for the 15 month old ends with the "nature items" found in the small patch of grass we were sitting on, I knew we might be in trouble. There were lots of stores around us, but I didn't know when the locksmith would show up, and since I didn't have my phone, I needed to be on site and ready to show my ID.

Adrienne, not knowing that anything was amiss, never broke her stride. She played with my wallet, broke sticks, studied the texture of the bricks outside the post office, smiled at strangers, and kept her glow of cuteness, unaware as she was that her diaper had exploded on her dress and made her rather stinky. I decided to follow her cue and enjoy the time as best as we could. I also smiled at the people walking into the post office, almost all of whom gave me understanding nods and smiles, and to their credit, didn't give any "Boy, that girl and baby look gross" looks to us. One lady even offered us a ride!

It was an hour before our hero in the AAA truck arrived, but even then, the anti-theft technology on my car kept us detained another 20 minutes. When it was all said and done, our 60 second errand had morphed into an hour and thirty minute adventure with the following lessons learned:

*always lock the car with my keys, and not on the door handle.

*never leave the house in a such a state that you would be embarrassed to be stranded and seen by hundreds of people.

*AAA is a service worth having. I can even lock my keys in three more times this year without having to pay a dime!