154.2 - Mother of the Year

Before I get into the MOTY story, I just wanted to give a big YAHOO to getting more weight off. It's nuts how, when I stop eating carby crap and processed food and stuffing my feelings down at night with cake, the weight comes off. I am still digging the WW online thing. And quickly realizing that I have to get some exercise points in so I don't go over my 35 weekly allowance. I'm only on 20 points a day, which seems like not much, and the past 2 days I've hit 27.5 and 26.5 points. So I have 22 allowance points left for 5 days. Thankfully I'm going to workout at least 3 days (God willing) so it should be all good. But I'm eating as little food as I ever have and I can't imagine trying to shave off more to only eat 25 points a day.

Luke does not have strep throat, which the doctor confirmed this morning at an 8 a.m. appointment. Guess it's just a virus. I got a babysitter for him (my cousin's daughter) and he's at home, having a big ole time I'm sure. Sophie is getting her tonsils & adenoids out on 6/23. So far she hasn't caught Luke's sore throat and I'm keeping my fingers crossed she stays healthy until her surgery.

I am planning on running for 25-35 minutes then taking a weights class today at 4:30, then it's pick up Sophie, take the kids to VBS, take the baby sitter home, and then I'll have about an hour to do something....not sure if it will be run, be lazy, go shopping, or what. I love having time with no set plans, all to myself.

***Why I am Mother of the Year (insert sarcasm here)***
Yesterday after I dropped Sophie off at VBS (Luke couldn't go because of his fever), I locked my keys in the car. In and of itself, this is no big deal.

Except when your toddler is in the car with the windows up and it's 85 degrees outside.

Luke and I had been playing with my key remote, because he said "what's that?" when he heard me unlocking the doors. (He asks "what's that?" about 10 million times a day.) So I put him in his car seat, showed him how the locks worked with my key remote, and we played with locking & unlocking the car, all with his door open.

When that fun was done, I threw my keys in the passenger side seat like I usually do so my hands are free to buckle him into his car seat. I closed his door, walked around to mine, and to my horror realized the door was locked when I couldn't open it.

I have a spare key, but it's in my wallet which was of course in my purse which was also on the passenger seat. I also have AAA, but of course had no cell phone to call them because it was in my purse. But I was at our church so I ran in to use the phone to call AAA. I didn't know the AAA phone number though (for future reference, it's 1-800-AAA-HELP), and asked a few people in the church fellowship hall who had AAA. Thankfully my friend Heather did and she got her card and I called the number.

It took about 2 minutes for an operator to connect with me, another 3 minutes to complete the transaction, and then a mere 7 or 8 minutes for the towing company to arrive to let my little guy out of car.

I was completely freaking out while in the church--not knowing if Luke was crying or how he was doing (getting hot, since only the sunroof was popped which isn't much but at least it was some air getting in). It seemed like it took forever.

When I got off the phone I ran to the car and talked to Luke through the closed window. He was totally fine. Wasn't crying at all. He had kicked off his crocoffs (Target Crocs) and told me he took his shoes off. I told him the doors were locked and a guy with a big truck was coming to help. Luke is very verbal for a 2 1/2 year old (complex sentences already), and so we just talked and then made faces at each other.

I couldn't help but cry a little while he was in there, even though I did my damnedest to keep it together so I didn't upset him. I could see his hair getting wet with sweat and knew he had to be really uncomfortable, even though he didn't once say he was hot or sweaty.

Truly, the kid is the best ever.

They make "kid locked in the car" calls their #1 priority at AAA and the towing companies, so it was the fastest AAA call I've ever seen (we've had AAA for years and have used them in enough emergency situations that it's totally worth it). The gentleman from the company said they dropped everything and he got there as fast as he could. He propped my door open with this balloon thingy and eventually just fished my keys out of my purse and pressed the "door open" button. I ran around and opened my door, then opened the rest of the doors, then ran around and got Luke out.

I held him and held him. And his little back and hair were soaked with sweat but he was none the worse for wear. I thanked the gentleman from the towing company, showed Luke the big truck (which he loved) and we went inside and I wet him down with cool paper towels and gave him some lemonade to drink.

My friend Amy said it was okay--she'd done the same thing but in her own driveway where she could go in and get the spare key. But I still lost it and started crying. He wasn't harmed and it wasn't a long time, but I still felt awful and scared and yet relieved that he was alright.

Before that drama occurred, I had planned on taking Luke to the mall and pushing him around in his Little Tykes red car, but by 7 p.m. the weather had turned and the wind was blowing and it had gotten a lot cooler. So I put him in his car and we walked down to the grocery store. It took about 20 minutes to get there (this is one part of town where sidewalks are nice and you can walk to some businesses), and it was a great time for both of us. He got a cookie in the store, I got a banana and some water, and we walked back.

As we were going up the sidewalk back to the church, it started to rain. We'd just missed a downpour, which only lasted about 15 minutes. Then we went outside and Luke jumped in puddles to his heart's content.

It was finally 8 p.m. and time to get Sophie and go home. All in all, it was a good night with Luke & me spending some much needed time together. I'm just glad he's too young to remember this and he won't be able to blackmail me someday with "remember when you locked me in the hot car?" (BTW, I didn't tell Sophie. I did tell my husband. Sophie would freak out if she knew Luke was stuck in the car. She's so sensitive to stuff like that.)