Unprepared at the Park

Remember that movie with Michelle Pfeiffer called, "One Fine Day." In the movie she's a single mom and she carries with her a medium size purse. Her purse is amazing. I don't remember what it looked like but it contained all the motherly essentials plus some emergency essentials such as items to make a Halloween costume in the scene where she forgot it was her son's dress up day at school.

I assumed every mother's purse was as well stocked and every mother as prepared. Not so in my case. No matter how much I stuff my purse or back pack with food, clothes, toys, etc. , lately it seems I keep forgetting one essential, diapers. This happened last on the day after we moved. Everything was in the new condo in boxes and jumbles and I realized, after the kids got out of the bath, that I had no diapers. I had no choice but to make Andy go commando under his shorts. I told him under no uncertain terms that he was not to let loose until we got him a diaper at Rite Aide. Luckily the Rite Aide is a block away. However, as he was standing by the car about to get in, I heard his little voice, "look Mommy I went pee pee." Sure enough there he was standing over a puddle and I had to take him, wet shorts (we had no extra clothes either) and all to Rite Aide for the emergency diaper.

You'd think I would have learned my lesson but it happened again yesterday. Jeff had a claim in Old Town, ID and dropped us off at a lovely park in the nearby tiny town of Newport, WA. Jeff's claims lead him in interesting directions. Who knew there was a Newport without a beach in this country. Jeff unloaded us at the park for two and half hours with Gatorade, snacks, jackets, and my backpack. All seemed well until Andy announced he'd made a big one in his diaper. I scrambled to the bag and was relieved to find a single diaper but disappointed to find no wipes. I'd gotten them out at Taco Time to wipe up faces and forgotten to put them back in the backpack.

Not believing this had happened again, I looked through the backpack to find an alternate solution. Poor Andy! I tried to make his wipe up with ice water out of my drink and coloring book pages go quick but he was heard yelling out, "It's very, very cold!" Nicky also threw a fit when she saw what I was doing with the un-colored pages of Cinderella and the mice. Everything would have been fine if that had been the end of the story.

A half hour later, Andy made another big one. Luckily by then the ice water had gone lukewarm so the cleanup wasn't as cold but Nicky was even more frantic about the coloring book. The bigger problem was that Andy was going commando and we were in unknown territory. The nice thing about these tiny towns you've never heard of is the people are friendly and talkative. You can make eye contact with anyone and get a smile. So a nice lady in front of her house directed me to the Safeway and we found hygienically appropriate items for Andy's bottom before there were any further disasters.

I'm now going to stock all bags and cars with loads of diapers and wipes. Geesh! You'd think I'd learn.

Other than that, our trip is progressing well. With the claim out of the way, we will now make our way to Glacier National Park today. The kids are very confused about hotels. Since Andy thinks our new condo is a hotel he also thinks we are moving again and the Schweitzer Lodge that provided accommodations last night is now his new home. Before bed he asked where his bedtime chart was. Poor messed up boy.