The plan for the day was to get Elijah down for a nap and then after that, we would eat lunch and head over to my parents' pool for some swimming. The nap part went swimmingly (pun intended) and lunch went just as well. Any day when Eli eats all of his yogurt is a good day, even if I have to bribe him with pretzel sticks. So then we get dressed into our swimsuits, slather on the SPF 50 (SPF 8 for me) and pack our pool bag with various (albeit a little odd) toys that Eli likes to play with in the water: watering can, cup with a hole in it, etc. As we head out the door, Eli wants to be carried a few steps down the stairs, then he exclaims "self, self" so I let him go down a few steps himself. Then he says "mommy carry" and so this continues down the whole flight of stairs to our front door. Then I pick up off the console table by the door the empty ink cartridges that I have to get more of. Finally, we are out the door. I shut the door behind me and make sure it is locked. Then Eli wants to sit in the driver's seat of the car (he loves to pretend to drive) while I nestle the bags in the passenger side. It is at that point that I begin to feel this overwhelming fear course through my body. I think to myself "Please Lord, tell me that I did not just lock myself out of the house without my keys." The Lord responded "Why yes, my dear daughter, you did." Awesome. As I think hurriedly through the possible ways to get into the house, each way is thwarted. Thwarted by what, you ask? Thwarted by my anal retentive, OCD conduct when it comes to locking the house. Thwarted by the fact that I am a princess and have the air conditioning on because any humidity makes me extremely uncomfortable. And thus, all windows are closed AND locked. Drat. And on this day, Chad is at a Phillies game with his company, so would not be able to comes get us for a while. So I call my sister Michelle who works 10 minutes away in Thorndale and she agrees to take us to my parents' house and Chad would pick Eli and I up around 4 after he got out of the Phillies game early. I was able to snap a few pics of Eli waiting for Michelle to come. Of course he loved being outside, though he was sweating like crazy. He was allowed to have all of the time the world to play in the elusive front seat of the car in which he almost never has the opportunity to play. He also had a fun running around the driveway too, finding rocks in the grass.
Michelle came and picked us up and took us to our parents' house. They were not home all day so Eli and I had the pool to ourselves. But the water was a bit cool. My Dad had drawn a schematic of the gears, knobs and switches of the pool's 'control system' so that we could turn on the hot tub portion of the pool while he was not there. Well, lets just say that this diagram read like hieroglyphics to me. I had no idea what I was doing, so I called my Mom and asked her. She knew a bit more than I did, but basically we were the blind leading the blind. The 'control system' of the pool is hidden behind these tall bushes and I need to brush by them to get to the controls. This normally would not be a problem, but holding my son who HATES the bushes brushing up against him, trying to talk to my Mom on the phone, bending down to see the labels on the gears and not having ANY idea what I was doing, let alone if my actions would break the pool, was a tad bit stressful. So my Mom told me to just calm down and hang out with Eli a bit and then call my Dad to figure it all out (Moms are so wise). So I hung up, put Eli in his new car tube in the hot tub and sat on the hot tub step. Here are some pictures of him in happier times, because it was about to get a lot worse.
While sitting on the step, I thought I would call my brother, since he used the hot tub last. He would know how to turn the hot tub on/off.....if I remember correctly, he reads hieroglyphics well. :) I reach over to get my cell phone off of the chair and call his work. So as I am standing on the hot tub step, I ask for my brother and they put me on hold. Then I hear "mommy, mommy" and I look over and see my son go from tube to water in what seemed like lightning speed. I jump off of the step into the water and pull him out with one handed, super human strength. He is crying and I am scared. He says "towel, towel" so I dry him off, then he says "hot tub, hot tub". I was certain this scary incident would make him afraid of the water, at least for today. But he wanted to go back in and was totally fine after that. I was the one that was completely frazzled and my heart was beating out of my chest. Then I see a black object in the hot tub......my cell phone. Whoever said chlorinated water and cell phones don't mix were absolutely correct. All my videos of Elijah during his first two years, photos of him growing, gone. Not to mention that I was not even sure of my husband's cell phone number because when it is as easy as pressing one button call someone, who needs the actual number?! So after Eli swam for a bit, we went inside, dried off and Eli had a snack and some non chlorinated water to drink.
It was around 4pm by then and I decided I would try to remember Chad's cell number because he should be picking us up any minute. Luckily for me (the only lucky thing that day!) I got his number right on the first try. He said he was in traffic in the parking lot of the place where the Phillies play (forgot the name, Wachovia Center???) and that they were at a standstill. So Eli and I waited until 6:30 for Chad to get to us. On the way home, we were laughing about some of the day's craziness and thankful that the day was over. But today, having to go get a new cell phone and probably having to pay full price for it is not very funny.
So I have now joined the ranks of families having 'one of those days'.......and up for contention for the Mommy of the Year Award.
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