My life as a mom is filled with cliche's and most of them true since, by definition, they are cliche'. For instance, I drive a mini-van. I am a soccer mom. I've got my hands full. I do NOT have mom jeans. And especially this one, never a dull moment. Sometimes I could go for a few more dull moments. Take the Pinewood Derby this past Saturday.
My hubby left the house at 8:15 for our oldest son's basketball game and he took the four year old with him. I finished packing up for an overnight stay in Peoria, which I was driving to (BY MYSELF) immediately following the Derby, gathered up all the kid stuff and got our six year old and one year old in the van. We made it for the opening ceremonies and then it was time for Tiger Cub racing. George watched his car race alongside his buddies' creations. Meanwhile, Mary was passed around and sat with various moms and dads. George came in 12th out of 14th and took it all in stride. No tears, nothing. Way to go!
Next, we had to wait for the Webelos I races to start. They weren't for another hour so we had some downtime. George bought himself a snack from the concession stand and sat down to enjoy his Skittles. Mary returned to me with a stinky diaper desperately in need of changing. Joe texted me that the basketball game was 12 - 0 at half time, our team being the one with zero. Rats. My friend was holding Mary while I dug out her diaper bag. As I'm rooting around in the stroller, George says, "Mommy, Mommy, my tooth is bleeding!" Sure enough, his loose tooth was bleeding so I grabbed some napkins and wrapped up his tooth. I gave it a little twist and out it popped. I got him settled in with a napkin stuffed into the gap and his tooth safely tucked away in his wallet for the tooth fairy. What was I doing? Oh yeah, Mary needed a diaper. I went to change Mary.
The time came for the Webelos I race to start. Our boys lost their basketball game 31-2. Bummer. I saw Zack's teammates trickling in to watch their cars race. No Zack. I received a text from Joe. Zack forgot his Cub Scout uniform shirt (despite being reminded several times to put it in the car). They were stopping by the house to pick it up and then on their way. I set up at the end of the race track to video Zack's races on my iPad. Zack missed his car's first race but made it in time for the rest of the races. The little boys were spread out at the table with coloring books. A friend was holding Mary and actually rocked her to sleep. We transferred her to the stroller and she stayed asleep. Hooray!
Now it was time to watch the final races and get ready for my exit. UNTIL, Andy wanted to buy a cup of hot chocolate. He got out his jar of spending money, which I was carrying in my bag, and counted out four quarters. I helped him buy the hot chocolate and sit down at the table. Ahhh...almost done. Time to sneak out. But wait, Andy knocked over the hot chocolate and spilled it all over the table covered with crayons, artwork, coats and bags. We saved the coats and all but one mom purse and most of the artwork and crayons were a total loss.
Like I said, never a dull moment.
p.s. I did make it to Peoria later that day and had a wonderful visit as we celebrated the 40th birthday of one of my dearest friends.
