Next time, just leave the dirty diapers inside

Yesterday morning went down in the books and I had to write about it to remember the sheer JOY of our days during this season of our lives. :)

The day started WAY to early...both girls woke up around 6:30. What?? What happened to my sweet little angels that sleep in until 8:00? Those days are gone. :( So we started early and were all a bit tired by, oh, 8:00 a.m. By 8:30 we had already gone through several rounds of diaper changes and I had bagged the "bad" ones up and decided to take a trip out the front door to dispose of them in the big garbage can. I have done this a million times and have never even thought about the possibility of....
getting locked outside of my house. With my girls inside the house.
But, it happened. :) We have a new storm door that has a new "fun" knob on it that is in perfect reach for Caroline to twist. And twist she did. She thought it was great. I stood on the front door, looking through the glass, encouraging her to keep twisting the knob to get it unlocked. Unfortunately her skills only worked turning it one direction, and she couldn't get it to unlock. So panic set in about the same time that sweet Emily realized mommy was on the OTHER side of the door, just starring at the them. She began to cry and Caroline just starred and looked at me. What to do??? Thankfully the Lord had His eye on this situation and within 3 minutes our amazing police drove by and I flagged him down without hesitation. He pulled into our driveway, I introduced myself- this was a new policeman, we know the other 2 very well- and explained the situation. He grabbed a screwdriver from his car and hastily unscrewed the door frame while Emily hurried him on with her wails. He pryed it open enough and was able to stick his hand in to twist the knob unlocked. Oh me. It could have been so much worse...but I won't let my mind wander in that direction. I know most parents get locked out at some point in their career...this was just our first, and I am almost positive that it will happen again. I suppose I need to quickly find ways to hide keys somewhere for me to use in these situations.
So about 15 minutes later or friends, Rachel, Mary Ellen, and Charlotte arrive for a morning playdate. We had fun catching up and playing. While Caroline and Mary Ellen were playing in Caroline's room, I heard a wild, extremely giddy laugh come from my sweet firstborn. Mary Ellen stepped into the living room with the look of "ummmm...you may want to come check this out" on her face. I jumped up and discovered that Caroline was having a fabulous time emptying her entire 5 drawer dresser...by flinging the clothes all over her bedroom floor. It was a mess...and I quickly refilled the drawers and just decided that it was time to reorganize/switch seasons of clothes anyway.
I made a bad call and thought it was warm enough to take the kids outside to play in the new sand and water table that we have set up in the front yard...and it was too cold. I should have stopped them before we even made it to the table, but again, my bad. So we let them play for about 5 minutes until we knew the wind was to cold to be pouring water all over themselves. So we said, "Time to go inside!" knowing that yesterday Caroline spent probably over and hour playing happily at her table. So the tantrum started...on the wet, muddy, front yard. Mary Ellen sweetly walked inside with her mommy and little sister, while Caroline threw down, laid out, bumped her head on the ground and donkey kicked me in the gut as I wrangled her inside. Yes, she is a spirited little one. And I love it....most days.:) Quickly she calmed down once inside and moved on to the next item of business.
A few minutes later Caroline was demanding a snack...big surprise. I filled her "snack bowl" with many different options so she would be happy and hopefully continue playing with Mary Ellen. I really am not sure what initiated this, but she looked me in the eyes, and dumped her entire bowl of chex mix, cookies, and animal crackers onto the kitchen floor. REALLY?? What possessed you??
So it was only 11:00 and our playdate was winding down due to tired girls. We said our goodbyes and I put the girls in their highchairs, shoveled out a quick lunch, and put them in their beds for naps in a record time. What a long morning...and we still had the entire afternoon to go. Never a dull moment in motherhood. And I have a feeling that there are going to be MANY more fun mornings like this as toddlerhood continues...with yet another sweet toddler developing right behind Caroline's footsteps.

p.s. The night before this fun day I had given the girls dinner and they were playing in the living room as usual while I straightened up the kitchen before bath time. I got a little carried away and thought I had enough time to empty the dishwasher and reload it...really? I should know better than that! Caroline ran in and grabbed a Tupperware water pitcher and ran back into the living room- no big deal, they always play with those dishes. I realized it was too quiet for them to be in the living room, threw my towel down, and quickly discovered some fun toilet turmoil happening. Emily had crawled into Caroline's little training potty (it was FAIRLY clean...), Caroline was dipping toilet water out of the big toilet and pouring it onto the toilet seat, that had already been sprayed with our contact solution (her favorite bathroom toy). The whole roll of toilet paper had been unravelled on the floor and Emily had a few sheets stuck to her in random spots. Luckily, it was bath time, so into the bath they went, after a FIRM (one-sided) discussion about how we do not play in the potty. Wow. Fun times for all. Come visit at your own risk....

I love my crazy, hectic, surprising days with my girls. We don't have it all together all the time, but that's the beauty fashion of motherhood.

p.s.s. Emily has been sick the past week, Brad was sick with a stomach bug one day, and things have just been in "recovery mode" at our house this past week. Sorry for the lack of pictures, blogging and interesting stories. Soon...I promise.