Bad Mondays

So yesterday was the reason Monday has a negative connotation.  First, William George, was awake from approximately 3-5:00am.  Therefore, we were already functioning on a sleep deficit and felt very much as if we had been hit by a train.  (I should mention he was awake from 2:41 - 4:45am Sunday morning.) But, we shook it off and started the day.  Sleep is overrated anyway. 

Upon awakening the girls, we were immediately made aware that Lauren was not feeling well.  She had a stomach ache, but did not appear to be feverish.  To be on the safe side, we decided only Gracie would go to school.  At 8:15am, Lauren decided she felt much better and thought she could go to school after all.  Since she had skipped breakfast, I gave her a brunch-type snack of applesauce, and told her that she would have to wait until after George's bottle.  In the meantime, she went to the restroom and declared herself completely well. 

We praised Lauren for deciding to go to school, and we commended her for recognizing that there was still 90% of the school day left.  We were in the car and on the way to school at approximately 9am.  When we were literally twenty feet from the turn into the school drive, Lauren told me her stomach was hurting.  By the time our tires made contact with the school parking lot, she was sick in the back seat.  She was pitiful, to be sure.  After surveying the damage and doing some initial clean up with wipes, I told her that we would need to do a full clean up at home, where we have supplies, etc. 

Since I was keeping an eye on her in the mirror, I couldn't help but be aware of how miserable she was back there.  I stopped about one third of the way home to attempt clean up.  After some more clean up, we decided to do the full clean up at home.  Going further would have only gotten Lauren dirtier than she already was. I got back in the driver's seat to start the car, and... nothing.  The car would not start!. 

I tried again.  Still, nothing.  Click-click-click... nothing.

Shockingly, Skip answered when I called.  Normally, if he is on calls (which is always), he never answers.  We discussed the unlikelihood of the call being answered, and my guess is that he responded due to Lauren's earlier illness.  Otherwise, as he said, he would have assumed I was calling to say I was stopping at Target on the way home (that, for the record, would have been a false accusation). 

When the girls were babies, I read that the best skill to hone is the ability to be in control, to exude confidence.  When in doubt, allow an instinctual reaction (courtesy of oxytocin) to take over, give confident instruction, and children find this comforting.  That approach seemed logical, and I have gotten much mileage out of it.  Really, this works like magic.  Immediately after talking with Skip, I reflexively began comforting Lauren. 

"Lauren, don't worry.  We are going to clean up now -- no time like the present -- and then we'll go home with daddy.  Don't worry; I know exactly what to do." 

Only the absurdity of the morning caught up with me, and I started laughing, admitting, "Except that I don't really know what to do first."  The logistics of working around three car seats, various paraphernalia (e.g., coats, book bag, nap mat, diaper bag) made the first step less obvious.

So we both laughed for about a minute.  We talked about "bad days," and that our day had officially qualified as a bad day.  We talked about how there will be many bad days and that there are usually two choices.  We could either get upset about it, or we could see the humor.  We laughed, and then we rolled up our sleeves.  Lauren carries a change of clothes in her school bag.  We got her out of the back seat (which resulted in her getting more dirty in the process), changed (with a quick wipe down with baby wipes) and repositioned in one of the unaffected seats.  I remembered that I keep a full size can of Lysol in the car.  After removing the two car seats in the back and wiping down the area, we were ready to go.  She was the epitome of bravery throughout the entire ordeal.  Lauren is better today, and we have surmised that she had a 24-hour bug yesterday. 

As far as the car?  The car was towed, quickly repaired (bad battery) and is back in rotation.

While I would like to report that today has been a better day, we had to go to the DMV this morning and that, by definition, is the foundation of a bad day.