Every Day with Eli: July 13

Chris got up with Caleb and Daisy this morning, and before I had even gotten out of bed, they were off on a bike ride. Our birthday gift to Caleb was a tag-along bike like the one he rode during our visit to Iowa. Caleb was itching to try it out, so today was the day. Chris had Daisy up in front in the bike seat and Caleb behind on the tag-along, and they were all pleased with the result.

After their bike ride, I took the kids to church while Chris stayed home to work on replacing some light switches and electrical outlets. Of course, Lily chose that time to have a diaper blowout in her car seat. The girl hasn't had a blowout in at least six months, but it happened today.

It was awful.

Poop was everywhere.

We were already nearly twenty minutes late to church, and then I had to decide whether to attempt to clean up the mess at the car, or try to carry my baby (who was oozing poop) into church while also corralling the two older children. I ended up deciding to take her in, because a Toyota Camry with three car seats across the back really has no safe option for cleaning up a blowout of this caliber. But I was so distracted by the poop and the big kids that I inadvertently left my car keys sitting on the trunk of my (unlocked) car. Oops.

Chris would not have been pleased.

Thanks to some really kind people, we got into church, got the diaper situation cleaned up, and got the kids into their classrooms. I grabbed a well-earned cup of coffee and slunk into church, 35 minutes late. Last week, church was over half empty. Today? EVERY SINGLE ROW WAS FULL. I had to do the church walk of shame all the way up to the third row.

*sigh*

By the time we got home from church, I was worn out. We fed the kids, put Lily down for a nap, and turned on a movie for the big kids. They chose Star Wars, Episode IV, and both Caleb and Daisy were transfixed for every single minute of it. The only thing that distracted them was the bowl full of cherry tomatoes I brought in from our garden. My children - my children! - fought over those tomatoes, and gobbled them all up!