whoa there, nellie

Josh has been gone since Wednesday.  I sent the two older girls with him.  For the most part, the 5 days without him has been fine.  The challenging parts have had to do with having extra little people in our house - especially during 2 days of rain during which EVERYONE got cabin fever.  Then we had a break and spent our days outside, which was so nice.  But today.  TODAY my baby has been hard to deal with.  Sacrament meeting was a joke.  I can laugh about it.  In fact, I was laughing while it was happening.  I thought - of course this is happening when I have neither Josh nor the girls to help out.

So first of all, I've been asked to fill in on the organ this month.  Last week I had to have a sub since I was also out of town.   Today I showed up early to play prelude and the organ was locked.  The Bishop and his counselor could not find the key.  The woman who played last week didn't come until during the opening song - (turned out she had not realized that she has the ONLY key), so I played the piano.  Funny start to the meeting.

During the first talk, Kenna mentioned that she had to use the bathroom. The talk should have been just about over, so I asked Kenna to wait until after I played the intermediate hymn.  She waited for a few minutes, then asked again.  I asked her to wait.  She waited a few minutes more.  Then she begged, and crossed her legs, and sat on the floor with pleading in her eyes.  I was SURE the talk was JUST ABOUT to END, so I asked Logan to run her to the bathroom and just wait outside the door and I would come down and help her out.  He acquiesced.  The talk kept going.  Then Natalie had to go.  She asked.  And asked.  And asked.  At this point I thought that for SURE the talk had to be about over and I would be playing the piano.  I finally told her that Logan was at the bathroom and to just go and he would help her.  If I had known I had so much time I would have just taken the kids to the bathroom and asked someone to play on my way out of the chapel (although at that point I didn't know any other pianist had arrived).
So finally it's time to play the hymn (of course it's a long one).  As soon as I'm done I go out to the hall to find Logan helping the girls get drinks of water with little cups from the nursery cupboard.  Apparently they've been having a great time together in the hall.   I have no idea who went to the bathroom or how they got out again, but whatever.


Logan and Kenna zip back into the chapel, but Natty loves her freedom and protests.  Finally, I just leave her in the foyer and head in, thinking she'll follow me.  I got interested in the talk and sort of forgot that she didn't come in right away.  After awhile I realize, "oh!  I'm missing a kid" and turn to look for her.  She's just then rounding the corner to my side of the chapel, quietly moseying along like she's got all the time in the world.  I guess she did.

The second talk goes.  And goes.  Since the first speaker went 10 minutes over, the second speaker is trying to cut his talk down, but still going a few minutes over.  Natty mentions that she has to go potty.  I know that means that she needs to go #2, but I'm JUST about to play the closing song.  I tell her - "2 minutes - then I can take you"!  She smiles.  Not too long after that, I smell something.  She gets tooty when she has to poo, so I'm not overly worried.  I play the song.  I take her to the bathroom.  Oh yes, yucky mess.  Strip her clothes off, clean her up.  Scurry her into nursery and tell the nursery leader, "I am so sorry, Natty had an accident.  I have to run home and get pair of clean underwear for her".  This is why we live 2 blocks from the church.  I can't tell you how often I've had to run home for something like this with this kid.  And thank goodness she is the ONLY kid in nursery so I can do something like that.  Also, bless that woman's heart - she only gave me the briefest of strange looks.


And that, my friends, was just one hour of my day.  If I tell you that the afternoon was QUITE similar you will see why it was one of THOSE days for me.  The afternoon involved poo-y undies on a shelf in the family room and poo smeared in several places on walls while I was talking to Josh on the phone.

For full disclosure - Natalie has been doing great with her toileting.  For some reason today she just totally let fly and was a crazy girl.  I, for one, will be glad to have Josh home tonight.