Those days

Do you ever have those days when you step back and look at the day's events from an outsider's point of view, and you just have to laugh?  If you had been watching my day today, it would have been a series of hilarious clips.  Mostly the kind where you laugh and then the laugh turns into an "ooooh...." as in Oooh, I hope she's okay or  Oooh, that sucks.


Tye woke up at 6 am, giving us plenty of time to switch car seats before we left for our nature walk at 9:30.  We had to switch car seats because we were driving a rental while our car was in the shop and I wanted to use the old car seat, which takes 15 minutes to install, rather than the new one, which takes about 35 minutes, in case we needed to take a cab home after dropping off the rental.  The rental was out on the street because I didn't have a garage door opener to get it into the garage, so I let Tye sit in the driver's seat while I changed car seats.  I spent over 30 minutes changing car seats, during which time, Tye figured out which button honked the car horn.  Can't you just imagine me with my butt out the rear door of the compact car, struggling with seatbelts and harnesses, trying to calmly ask Tye to not honk the horn- for 30 minutes?


After our nature walk, we arrived at the dealership to return the rental car and waited an hour and a half for a diagnosis (even though they had had our car for 24 hours).  The dealership is hosting a fundraiser tonight, so employees and party planners were bustling around.  Of course, the ladybud-themed decorations were like magnets attracting Tye, so I was that mom chasing her daughter around the dealership saying "Soft touches!" and "Hands off!" and "Don't spill your water there!"  Fortunately Tye charmed most of the event staff with her shy smile and soprano "Hiiyeee," including special guest Dina Manzo of the Real Housewives of New Jersey.  Of course, after she stopped to talk to Tye, someone said, "You know who that was, right?" (Blank stare from me)  "That's Dina from the Real Housewives."  Oh.  She looked just like every other rich Lincoln Park mom to me.


When I finally received word that the cost of repairs was nearly equal to our car's blue book value, I tried calling Tyler just to discover that my phone wasn't working.  I could make calls, but couldn't hear anything coming out of the speaker.  Hmmm... Could this have to do with Tye slobbering all over the phone just minutes before while I was talking to the service rep?  Maybe...  This was about the time Tye started to lose her cool (after two hours of waiting and only a 20 minute nap, who could blame her?), so there I was, walking around the dealership with a crying baby on my hip, no functioning car and no operable phone.  Sheesh.


As we were paying for the car inspection, Tye continued to chew on her hands as she has been for two days, trying to ease the pain of her canines coming in.  She chose this moment to shove her hand into her mouth so far she gagged and threw up all over both of us- her shirt, my sweatshirt, my shirt, my hair.  I wiped us down with baby wipes as well as I could while calming talking to the service rep.   Then it was another round of wrestle-the-car-seat in our own car while Tye, once again, honked the horn repeatedly, this time inside the repair shop.  Can't you just imagine how happy they were to see the crying, running, puking, horn-honking toddler and her clueless, phoneless mother finally leave?


Even when I look at the great moments in our day, they hold their own humor.  I'm sure I would have died laughing if I were a stranger who walked into the dealership bathroom while a woman was holding her 16 month old daughter over the toilet saying "Pee pee!  Pee pee!  YAAAYYY! PEE PEE!!! WOOHOO, TYE!"   And I actually did laugh at myself when, after two geese boldly approached us on our nature walk this morning, as soon as I asked a friend to take a picture of us with the geese, they hissed at me as if I was invading their privacy.  We got in a shot anyway-from a safe distance.

I've discovered one of the secret best parts of motherhood: on days like today, I'm not alone.  Tye was there to laugh- or hide, or run, as the case may be- right along side me through each fiasco.  She's becoming less of a fifth limb and more of a sidekick as she comes into her own personality, and having a buddy around to laugh with me when I fall is priceless.  In both the situations she creates, like vomiting on us, and exacerbates, like honking the horn while I'm wrestling car seats, I know Tye will laugh with me- if not in that moment, eventually.  Sure, some parts of today would have been easier without a toddler in tow, but Tye kept me laughing all day long.  The kind of laugh that turns into an "Ohhhhhhhh, I love you, Tye."