Adventures of Ethan and his doting,dotty mother

Yesterday, I spent most of the morning getting Ethan and myself ready for a birthday party. We were both excited about attending--it was for Amy Morris's little boy Grant, who was turning 3. The biggest excitement was that Spiderman(Janelle in a costume) was to make an appearance at the party.

Keith had to work rather unexpectedly and wasn't sure when he'd be home, although originally he thought it would most likely be before noon. The party was at 2, and since I'd never been there before, I'd dutifully printed out directions from Mapquest(estimated time 43 minutes) and decided to leave a little after 1pm in order to get gas and be there at a good time. SOOOOO....with Ethan freshly changed into party outfit number 2 of the morning, and myself carefully groomed, our present in hand, we headed out the door.

I had decided to wear a vest jacket because I figured I would be too warm for most of the drive in my normal wool, winter coat. (On a good day, the heat kicks in after fifteen minutes, so maybe I shouldnt have worried.) ANYWAY, As soon as I locked the door and closed it behind me, I realized I had locked my keys inside, in their usual place in the pocket of my winter coat.......!! For a few minutes I had a glimmer of hope as I searched my wallet where I usually keep a spare car key. I figured I could at least drive to the party and Keith would be home by the time we returned. Alas, alack. No key.

WELL, this story only gets better... I sat in the car with Ethan and tried to explain it to him. He adapted remarkably well to living life in the backseat of a Jeep Cherokee. Although there were a few attempts on his part to remedy the situation---Push that on car!--he demanded, pointing in the general vicinity of the steering wheel. And later, Go IN HOUSE!! If only.... I laughed hysterically off and on for the first couple hours.

After racking my brain and thinking of nothing, I decided we might as well get some exercise and go for a walk. After walking a few yards down the road, Ethan said, excitedly, "Walk to spiderman's house!!" poor child....he's getting used to disappointment on a regular basis. It got pretty cold, I hadn't brought gloves or hats for either of us, thinking we'd just be in and out of the car. It wasn't frigid but the wind made it uncomfortable. When Ethan started running away from me and refusing to stop, I decided to return to the relative safety of the Jeep.

This whole time I wasn't terribly worried because Keith almost always gets off work early. At the very latest, he was due home by 4:30 but I figured it would prob. be 3:30.

So, finally, at 2:30, Ethan and I braved the cold again and walked to the closest stores--about 1/3 mile away, or so. I left a note for Keith, one at each door, so that he could come pick us up when he returned. It wasn't too bad and we wandered around the hardware store looking at anything that faintly resembled a child's plaything... when Ethan started his favorite routine of running up and down the aisles, laughing mainiacally, we moved on to Rite Aid. We purchased some gloves and snacks for Ethan, although he had plenty more back in the Jeep. I mentioned our predicament to the cashier in Rite Aid, who nodded as if this was a commonplace occurence and suggested that we hang out in a nearby cafe. She pointed me in the general direction....20 minutes or so later, we entered the nearly empty rest'rant and were seated in a booth with Ethan devouring a cinnamon bun, and me several cups of coffee. I sat on purpose in a seat close to the window so I could monitor it for Keith's rescue. Around 4pm, I decided we could just walk back home and it wouldn't be long til Keith returned.

Back in the Jeep, another hour of hysterical off and on laughter turned to occasional outburts of tears, as around 5pm, I was badly in need of the bathroom (all that innocent coffee).

Well, a little after 5, desperation drove me to serious measures. I dragged Ethan out to canvass the neighborhood for an available toilet. Each time I rang a doorbell, Ethan reached up and tried to do it himself, succeeding at least once. At the fifth house, a middle-aged man came to the door and I explained our circumstances yet again. He asked if we had a cell phone (OH YEAH, why didn't I think of that before?????? duh) He pointed us in the direction of the bathroom where there was a rock holding the door open. He said, "You can move the rock, or just leave it open!" OK. Like a true Michigan male, he had a Nascar shower curtain!! (I moved the rock)

Ethan and I sat in the Jeep, getting colder and colder until shortly after 6pm when Keith returned, having worked his first overtime shift. Keith, in disbelief, asked what we had done the whole time! Well, let's see...I'm trying to forget all this, but....first, we read Noah's ark over and over til 40 days and 40 nights started looking more and more like a very real possibility. I sang as many Raffi songs as I could think of. I even took some pictures of us with the digital camera...

We watched the neighbors come and go and hoped they didn't notice us.Yeah, so that was my day. Time to make a spare key.