Triple Excitement

A few weeks ago, Mike and his friend, Steven, went to a Braves game--so Caroline and I packed up and headed to visit Steven's wife (and my good friend), Alison and their little girl, Sydney. Caroline L-O-V-E-D Sydney. Sydney wanted to "carry" (hold) her multiple times--and every time, Caroline ate it up.
But this is the boring part...the evening got a lot more exciting. First, Sydney informed me soon after we arrived, very matter of factly, that "there's a baby in Mommy's belly." Congratulations to the Muttons on their bundle-of-joy-to-be! I can already tell from the way she loved on Caroline that Sydney is going to be a super big sister!

But that wasn't the end of the excitement--as I was loading up to leave, I put Caroline in her car seat and set my keys down on the seat beside her so that I could go around and open the back of the car to load her stuff. I am usually careful to leave at least one door open anytime Caroline is alone in the car--but their driveway is on an incline, and--you can guess what's coming. Before I knew it, my keys (and Caroline) were locked tightly inside the car...after 10:00 on a Saturday night. While this would usually have been a crisis, it wasn't so bad considering the weather was cool, Caroline had just been fed, changed, and pajamaed for the night--I watched her fall peacefully and comfortably asleep through the window--and I had nowhere to be. While Alison went to have my "Mother of the Year" plaque engraved, I called Triple A (who, I am sure has me red flagged in their system as a potential scam artist--in the four months I have been a member, I have had to call them five times). Alison pulled a couple of camping chairs out of the garage, and we sat in the driveway, watching Caroline through the window with a flashlight, for nearly two hours as we waited for the nearest available locksmith to arrive--from Dahlonega, almost an hour away. The funniest part was that when they did get there, the locksmith team (and I do mean team--they were a serious duo) came roaring into the driveway, screeched to a halt just inches from my car, busted out of their SUV (wearing headlamps and armed with fancy locksmith tools) looking like the Ghostbusters, nearly knocked me down getting to the car, opened the door within 10 seconds, and literally jumped out of the way (out of breath from hurrying) so I could open the door. It was very sweet of them to be concerned about the baby being locked in the car, but I'm not sure what difference 30 more seconds would make after the two hour wait!

Newly pregnant Alison decided just before midnight that she HAD to have some baked beans--with a hot dog on the side.

The end of the excitement? Nope. Caroline and I were finally safely on the road headed home and, as I was fiddling with the GPS to make sure we were going the right way, I noticed the overhead light in the back of the car was flickering--and it looked kind of blue tinted. Wait. I couldn't believe it. I had no idea I was speeding. After all of this, I was going to get a ticket too?? I put on my emergency lights, pulled into a lighted parking lot and started working on my sob story (which included actual tears). It turns out I wasn't speeding at all, but as I was using the GPS, I was not doing a great job of staying in my lane (Dad, it was late, and it was a wide highway with several lanes with NO other cars on the road--it was safe, calculated swerving--and, remember, I wasn't speeding :) The officer was very nice and apologized for pulling me over--he thought I might be a drunk driver since it was so late on a Saturday night.

I finally got home and put Caroline in her bed just before 2 AM--she never stirred the entire time.

(Just in case you are thinking I am a horrible mother, please know that Caroline was never in any danger--I would have broken the car window with my fist to get her out if I had thought she was--and my driving on the way home really wasn't reckless.)