It didn't start all that bad. Really!
Other than sleeping in longer than I intended, the day was off to a pretty good start, from 7 to 7:45, the kids were up and dressed early, I autostart my truck, run out and start Tina's SUV. Tina and I were both ready to roll out the door early, and we were finally going to be on time - stress free.
Then the crying started.
Not awful crying, just pretty typical two year old "I want to go in Mom's car" crying. Not an option, Mommy and Maddie are headed to school, we are headed to Grandma's. He was over it pretty fast, but we were starting to move a little more frantically, so as to maintain our on time status. Additionally I was extremely motivated to be early as I had a pressing deadline I was fast closing in on, that needed some additional attention before I could submit my work.
Back to the crying toddler.
He needed to find his happy bottom buckled in a car seat, my hands were full; toddler blanket, keys, kids backpacks, and oh yeah, a kid. Drop objects in front seat, put toddler in back seat booster, buckle him up, close the doors, kiss Tina goodbye, run in the house to get my backpack, a caramel apple for Grandma, and keys? Quick look around the house for keys, then backpack over shoulder, and start a brisk paced walk to the running truck.
He's out of the seat.
As I approach the truck I see a little head, bobbing around the back seat, unbuckled and free roaming, my pace picks up, and I begin feeling my pockets for a poky set of bulky keys. Swapping back and forth between pockets as if a huge set of keys could hide in little pockets with paper thin linings. He loves pressing buttons, and his favorite buttons are the door locks, just reachable from the back seat of my truck. Then a little panic, and adrenaline kick in, which more than made up for skipping the coffee. I'm awake. And of course, he beat me to the locks.
At least the trucks warm.
I could feel my fingers getting a little numb, the two minutes I spent pulling couch cushions out praying to find keys I'm hoping are in the house, wasn't enough to keep me warm. And I, a grown man, am now leaning against truck windows, trying to get a maniacally laughing two year old to climb to the front seat of my truck, and start pressing buttons; any buttons, windows or locks, I would be happy. The closest he gets is halfway over the seat, only to then yell, "Daddy, HELP!! I stuck!"
Here comes the cavalry.
Between desperate attempts to coach a toddler to climb over seats and press buttons he's been trained to never touch, I called Mom and Grandma, hoping someone would have solutions I couldn't come up with, and praying Tina knew the location of the spare. She didn't but here comes Papa, with a slim-jim. The sad news, my truck doesn't like slim-jims. So while we fight my door locks, here are now two grown men, attempting to reason with a two year old.
And up rolls Mommy.
After a quick search of her vehicle for a, still at-large, spare key, Mom calmly walks to the passenger door, and says, "Hey Corbin, climb up here and stand by Superman," (Superman is on the front of his backpack, sitting in the front seat). Immediately, he is up and over the front seat. "Unlock the doors buddy." Click-Click, doors unlocked. With toddler now loaded in Papa's vehicle, Mommy and Daddy can now proceed, LATE to work.
So much for the deadline.
Yeah, project is unfinished, and I am five minutes late to a meeting. The meeting goes fine, but then I need to finish my paperwork. Paperwork in, onto other work and meeting number two. You can only feel so productive when you start the day like that. But I'm feeling like I'm slowly catching up, finding my stride and regaining my foothold on the day.
All caught up, and learning to see the humor in life.
12:15 I finally have a break, I've met with everyone, I've had my meetings, I've listened to everyone with something to say, I can finally answer the call I've been ignoring all day, Nature's. And there, behind the closed door of the men's room, I discover why everyone found my "joke when I'm uncomfortable" comments so funny, and there was no embarrassment, no shame, of course my fly's been down all day.
