by This wasn’t one of my better days. But the kids held their end up high and everyone is home, healthy and (mostly) happy! We even have an extra couple of girls in the basement, so we must be doing alright!
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Woke up this morning and we (Averie, her friend, AJ and I) were all set to be on time for Averies soccer game. But it took me longer than expected to get AJ ready and in the car so she was a few minutes late. Not bad though, all things considered. AJ and I stayed in the car until the game was up – it was just too cold to haul him out this morning.
Since AJ was already in the car I decided we should get out and about for a change, so we went to Hy-Vee after. The girls took turns pushing the stroller and the cart, AJ was totally enamored with everything going on around him and loved evey second. We checked out and I realized I’d left my wallet at home – But no worries I had my emergency stash of cash, so we paid and I got us all Starbucks, and I left Hy-Vee feeling like a total rockstar for conquering the trip despite the small snag with my wallet.
I should have stopped there, but then I thought “ya know what? We’re on a roll. He needs a haircut.”
So we drove across town to sportsclips. I knew he was going to need a diaper change so I swapped seats with Averie after I parked the car so I could just change him in the car before we went in.
The second I sat down in the chair next to him he lost it. And by “it” I mean ALL the food he had that morning. Without warning. All over the car. With force. All over his seat. All over himself. All over his HME and at one point he even managed to cover his trach stoma as well. Meaning it turned into mass panic, having the kids get oxygen tanks ready, pulling AJ from his seat and moving into crisis mode.
It. Was. Awful. Like a scene from the exorcist, or pitch perfect – whichever reference you prefer, except where it’s a cute kid who is scared and upset and the parent is trying to keep it together while simultaneously panicking that their kid is going to inhale their food through an open airway and drown while two 9 year olds scramble to provide assistance as said parent tries to also not freak them out given the severity of the circumstances.
Oh – and this is all while still crammed into the backseat of the car.
We managed to pull off turning up his oxygen, an emergent trach change, a clothing change and two diaper changes before we were finally able to wean his oxygen back down to baseline, sit back in our seats and breathe for a few seconds before heading in to get his haircut.
Because dangit, we didn’t go through all of that for nothing!!
The haircut goes fine. He’s a little squirmy and at one point we had to just say it was “good enough” before he had a melt down. But I think he looks good! Maybe a little too much like a big boy, but it’s certainly better than the mop he had going on anyway. As we are paying his concentrator starts beeping that the battery is dying so we hightail it out of there.
We get back to the car and plug in his concentrator. I finish cleaning the puke off his seat as best I can with baby wipes and wet ones, put him in and put the stroller in the back.
I sit in my seat, start the car and take a deep breath. Something feels off and I don’t know what it is.
Until I start driving.
I have this TV-like flashback vision where I put the stroller in the back of my car, and there were no groceries back there.
We left them at the store, in the cart, in the parking lot.
I call Aaron because I’m just done at this point and I was going to send him to the store after work. But he doesn’t answer, and In the interim I missed the turn for McDonalds — which I had promised the girls for lunch and it was now 2 PM.
I might have cussed a few times (sorry kids!) and then decided we should just go to the McDonalds by Hy-Vee and see if someone might have been kind enough to take our groceries inside.
I have Averie call their number since I’m driving – I figured there was a menu to get through before talking to someone. Nope!
They answer the phone and she promptly says “Do you have any groceries that are still there?”
Cue me telling her to just hand the phone to me before they think it’s a prank call. At this point I was worked up enough that there may have even still been more cuss words (oops!) Pretty certain the hyvee staff thought we were insane too, and in many ways it would have been an accurate analysis.
By some stroke of luck though, my groceries were still there! I don’t know who found them and took them in, but THANK YOU!!!! You were a bright spot in a difficult moment!
By this point I couldn’t handle the thought of hauling AJ and all his equipment out of the car again – and I thought he was going to nap (he didn’t), so I made sure Averie had her phone with her and sent her in with my receipt from earlier.
She returned with all my groceries, which they had even sat back in the coolers so my milk didn’t go bad. THANK YOU HYVEE! The girls loaded the car up while I continued trying to find my calm from the front seat.
We finally hit McDonalds and went home. Where I nearly just collapsed onto the floor when I realized I couldn’t just crash on the couch because we have three weeks worth of laundry in progress that was piled up on it.
But by this point it was time for AJ to get more meds and a serving of coconut water anyway.
So I got the laundry folded up, gave AJ his water and thankfully Aaron was home from work by the time AJ filled his pants… Im not sure I could have taken much more.
Averie and her friend were both amazingly helpful throughout the whole day, even when I was losing my mind… and they accepted my apology for being slightly psychotic too.
AJ was even on his best behavior since we got home despite not having had a nap. Guess they both know when mom is about to snap – and so does dad, who is currently putting together my new glider so I can sit outside with a glass of wine before the weekend is up 😂😂.
That said – next time anyone asks my why we don’t get out of the house more, I’m just going to tag them in this post…. at least the pictures and videos from today are cute though!
