Good Like a Medicine

On my way upstairs this afternoon I was tip-toeing so carefully in efforts not to disturb my sleeping children (or so I thought), and more importantly to not give away my secret, which was a huge bag of Bridge Mix. Upon stepping over the last step I started to reach my hand into the bag thinking that I was in the clear. Lydia’s head was popping out of her door. “Mommmmmmmy, what’s that?!”

It’s a wonder I didn’t fall all the way down to the bottom and hit my head on the floor. Why does this always happen to me? I sure wish someone could’ve snapped a picture of my face in that moment. Everyone who knows me well can attest that it’s pretty funny when I get caught, since I’m always trying to keep cool and deny my control-freak pseudo-perfectionist tendencies. I wish Eric would have seen it. He loves to see this kind of thing happen to me (he used to rearrange our living room furniture behind my back at night just to bug me) and gets a big kick out of it.

I started thinking about all of the times my kids have caught me or made a good joke out of me, like:

• the time Lydia pulled a tampon out of my diaper bag during a worship service and waved it all around in the air (I wanted to explain that God accepts all of our offerings but perhaps not these)
• the time Eric and I were singing at a funeral and had no one to keep our young baby, so we had her napping in her car seat beside our seats behind a curtain; right before we sang she started sucking her thumb SO LOUDLY that the microphone broadcasted the sound throughout the whole room



• “I have to POOOOOOOOPOOOOOOO, Mommy!” as loud as possible in the library
• the time Steven pulled an overchewed piece of cracker out of his mouth and handed it to the bagger at the grocery store
• the time Lydia screamed “Daddddddy!” at the top of her lungs and started running up the aisle at church during worship
• the time Lydia and Steven decided to simultaneously throw temper tantrums as we were having our family portrait made (I’m sure that one is not unique)
• the time I noticed Steven walking around with a condom wrapper in his hand (thankfully the friends coming over had not rung the doorbell yet)
• the time Lydia told a lady, “My daddy’s in jail,” the day after Eric had sang for some local inmates

Ha! And to think - mine aren’t even teenagers yet! Kids will be kids; thus my mommy motto for embarrassing moments:

“You will do foolish things, but do them with enthusiasm.”
– Colette, in New York World-Telegram and Sun, 1961