Out in Public.

So this past Thursday I got brave. Real brave -- and decided to take Oliver and Henry out by myself for the first time. We went to a place in Louisville that Oliver loves called All About Kids I figured it would be the easiest place to take them by myself since I could wear Henry and then Oliver would be well entertained by the bouncy houses and the open gym.

Everything went pretty well, with the exception of a few questions about "the thing on Henry's head" -- but more on that in a minute, until it was almost time to go. I love my boys but this tag team business started way earlier than I had anticipated. Henry decided in grand fashion to have the nastiest diaper explosion of his life at the very same time Oliver decided to have a melt down of epic proportions because it was time to leave. Once I got Henry cleaned up and Oliver happy with some juice I started looking for my keys. I tore through the diaper bag and those blasted keys were no where to be found. I hate that feeling. Sheer panic started to set in. What in the world was I going to do? How were we going to get home? My Kroger plus card had enough points for 30 cents off the gallon -- and now it's with my keys in the land of lost!

So I put everything back in the diaper bag and we found our way to the front desk. At this point I had myself so worried that we were going to be stranded that the woman behind the counter looked at me with such pity. I am pretty sure&nbsp my eyes were welling up with tears, alas, no one had turned in any keys. Please keep in mind I had taken Henry out of our ergo baby carrier so I had it, our diaper bag which is a back pack, Henry and Oliver  somehow with just my two hands. I am sure it was a sight.  We headed to the car praying that my keys were locked inside of it and to my surprise they were not locked in the car because the car wasn't locked. My keys were still in the ignition. Oh. My. Word. I had left my keys in the ignition for a little over 2 hours. Here I was thinking I had this whole mom of 2 children thing down pretty well. Humble pie much? Thankfully we were in a safe part of town where no one was interested in stealing my cheerio and gold fish laced sedan.

So the biggest take away of the day is to always-- ALWAYS-- put the keys in the diaper bag before I get anyone out of the car no matter the whining, the rush or the smell. But the other thing that I took away from our outing is that being Henry's mom also requires me to be an educator. It is something that I have been praying about since Henry's birth and had been anticipating/dreading the day that it would happen. Henry's shunt and the tubing that accompanies it is very noticeable right now because Henry has no hair and, while he is a chubster, his head has little fat to disguise or hide the valves. I want to handle the questions that people have about Henry with as much grace as possible. Most of the mothers we encountered while at All About Kids  didn't ask anything; they just stared at him and at me which I almost think is worse. I assure you it is extremely difficult to remain graceful when another mother looks at you and then points to your child and says "what's that on his head?" Trying not to give it too much thought I dove right in to why Henry has a shunt and what Spina Bifida is. I would give them a few sentences and then if they had more questions I went where they wanted to take the conversation.

Once people know what the shunt it all about they either become more curious about Spina Bifida than I would have thought or they talk about their second cousin on their mother's side that dealt with Spina Bifida 25 years ago. But I feel like all anyone really wants to know about Henry is "well can he walk?" Let me just throw this out there ... I have never met a 2-month-old that can walk. :) I know people will have questions and I know that they won't always know how best to ask them so it is my hope and prayer that as our family becomes ambassadors for Spina Bifida that we do it well. I found this verse a few weeks ago and after our little outing it's a scripture that I believe needs to go in the "stack to be memorized". It's a good reminder that whatever our speech it must be with grace.

^"Let your speech always be with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person" Colossians 4:6 

I mean aside from our little diaper explosion, melt down and lost keys extravaganza it was a pretty good trip and it severed well as a way to completely exhaust both my children. Oliver from bouncing all over the place and Henry from being on stimulation overload with all the lights and sounds of toddlers running around. Oh what an adventure it is going to be to be the mother of these two boys.

On the way home I captured this great video of Oliver trying desperately to stay awake and eat his snack, but in the end sleep won out and it was hilarious.

-Erin-