8:50 a.m. - 2007-10-19
a totally different ambush
During my pleasant time hanging out "one dorm over", the school bus came and went without dropping my son off. "Oh, that's right! It's Thursday--After School Enrichment today. I need to fetch FirstBorn from school at 3:30." And back I go to my discussion of rotgut beverages. Then the penny drops.
The infant carseat was loaned out Wednesday to the Foster Uncle when I gave him the Foster Girls. The carseat was not brought back Thursday morning. Hmmmm, how to fetch the son at 3:30 from school without the required number of carseats.... Call a friend--voicemail. Call another friend--more voicemail. Call the Foster Mom--even more voicemail. It is now 3:10. I make one more last ditch effort--I call a neighbor down the street. Remember what Chris Berman says, "One is chance, two is a trend, so what does that make four?" It makes four: more voicemail.
I have no other viable options--I must distribute three girls amongst two strollers (a single seat lightweight stroller and a long two seat heavy beyond all sense stroller) and walk the mile of suburban streets (because this subdivision has no sidewalks) to school to fetch my son. I called the school to let them know I would be late due to "car issues." Then I woke up a child and loaded all three into the strollers. Getting both strollers to work together was an adventure. Luckily, the uphill grade by my house is slight and gave me plenty of time to experiment. Eventually I hit upon a system that worked, at least for going uphill. Conveniently, the trip from my house to the school is almost entirely uphill--except for the school's 2/10 of a mile driveway which is beautifully flat.
Let me now provide you with the weightlifting numbers from my workout yesterday. Foster Girl One weighs 25 lbs. Screaming Harlot (my daughter with the ear infection) weighs 30 lbs. The double stroller weighs 33 lbs without the 2 lb. jug of pretzels I threw in because it was snack time. That was my left hand. Eight pounds of infant, two pounds of purse and twenty pounds of stroller were in my right hand. Except when I linked both the strollers together by some clever divinely inspired trick. Then I had the 120 pounds of girls and crap evenly distributed between both hands for the half mile walk UPHILL to fetch my son from school.
Granted, I could be wrong about it being half a mile uphill. It could be three quarters. I won't quibble. When I got in view of the supervising adults, two children scampered up and offered to help me. I happily gave them the 30 pound stroller and switched my attention to the 90 pounds of wiggly moody girls. The son took over "little stroller" duty and we made the trek home (half a mile downhill, on the street, in traffic) without incident or injury to anyone under the age of 9.
After unloading the girls and getting all the children snacks and loosening my hands enough to type, I sent my husband an e-mail.
******
what time will you be home? I have a sippy baby, an undernapped waddler, an ill daughter and a tired son.
and I had to push 100lbs uphill to pick up our son from BASE at 3:30 because baby's carseat didn't come back this morning.
This is the House of Grumpus today.
Please bring pizza.
and beer.
skip the beer--I'll drink rum....
hugs,
pegs
*******
Unfortunately, I sent it to NMH's HOME e-mail address. Luckily, I still looked like I'd pushed 120 lbs of stroller half a mile uphill (despite the shower I took afterwards). He offered to get pizza, "If that's what you want." Oh, I want. Not only did he go get pizza--he took our daughter with him!!! I love that man....
Later that night, he even rubbed my hands for me!! Which was really helpful. Yes, 800mg of ibuprofen is good, but sometimes one needs massage therapy to truly aid the healing process. I shall keep you all posted on the recovery of my left hand from its stroller-induced trauma. In the meantime, I'm going to wash, dry and dump lots of laundry on my bed. I'd fold it , too, but that hurts....
