Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Debbie's Days

I tell you, Debbie and Pam must really love these boys.  There are times I fear Debbie is going to show up at the library with my kids in tow and just say 'I give up.  Here you go.'  But she won't do that.  I'm not sure why.  A couple of weeks ago Debbie had a very interesting week.  The kind of week where I cringed when I heard what happened.

It all started on Monday when Debbie watched the boys so I could work and Hans and Pam could attend a church council meeting.  This was a bit of an unusual week because Debbie was going to be watching the boys three days in a row. Debbie decided to take the boys out to eat at Cracker Barrel.  She loaded the boys in the car and headed down the road.  I'm not sure how far she got before John told her that Gus didn't have any pants on.  Gus was wearing a pair of boxer briefs that, at a glance, look like shorts.  She did, however, turn around to get the kid an actual pair of shorts.  That was the only mishap that night.  Which was good because more awaited her the rest of the week.

Tuesday was the real kicker.  My wonderful yet scheduling inept husband had put on our calendar that he had a pastors conference on Wednesday and Thursday of this particular week.  So I did my part and had childcare lined up for those days for the few hours I was at work.  When a last minute meeting came up at work for Wednesday, I made my case for scheduling it on Tuesday, so as not to have someone watch the kids another time that week.  After all of my scheduling and planning Hans informed me that his conference was really Tuesday and Wednesday.  I tried, right?  So I took the boys over to the Checca's house and Debbie picked them up when she got out of work.  Mrs. Checca is very sweet, a lot sweeter than me.  She gets excited to watch the boys and tends to have all kinds of sweets for them.  Chocolate pudding was consumed before Debbie got there.  A lot of chocolate pudding.  The boys were a ball full of spastic energy.

After Debbie picked up the boys, she took them to John's soccer practice.  All was well until John's coach gave each player a fruit roll-up and a sucker.  This led Anders to believe he should have one as well.  How does Anders tell you he needs one?  Or tell you he feels it is a great injustice when he doesn't get what he wants?  He screams.  His screams are never ending and they are for everyone to hear.  As Debbie made her way to the car with Anders throwing a big fit, Gus started in on the fun and wanted a sucker too.  Since they were going out to eat, Debbie told John he shouldn't eat the sucker right then either.  Then she proceeded to drive away with three boys crying.  She had to take a deep breath.  I had to take a deep breath just listening to the recount of the days events.

She was able to calm them down before going into the restaurant.  The beginning of their meal was pretty uneventful.  Then Gus needed to go to the bathroom.  Debbie asked John to go with Gus and help him with the door.  So Gus went to the bathroom and John held the door open.  This all sounds nice, except this was a single bathroom and because the door was held open everyone got a show of Gus's little tushy.  As they were getting ready to go, Debbie asked Gus to eat one bite of the pizza he had been telling her all afternoon he wanted.  He obliged and then, when she turned around to put the highchair back, he threw up.  Everywhere.  After Debbie cleaned up the mess she ushered the kids out to the car.  Gus screamed the whole way home because he had some throw-up on his shoe.  Debbie kept telling herself it would be alright.  I'm sure she was glad she was finally taking the boys home.

Unfortunately for Debbie the night was not over.  Because Fritz was being a little too feisty with everyone on Monday night, I put his shock collar on him and set the remote on the island.  I specifically set it there so Anders couldn't reach it.  When Debbie and the boys got home Fritz was his usual crazy self and John felt he needed a warning beep.  So, while Debbie was unloading the car John proceeded to 'beep' Fritz.  But John was actually pushing the shock button and not the beep button.  Debbie came in from the car and saw Fritz sitting very, very still on the living room carpet.  He did not greet her at the door.  He did not come when he was called.  Something was not right.  That is when she saw John pushing the button, over and over again.  As soon as the collar was off, that poor dog headed for the door and curled up outside for a good long while.  When John found out what he had done, he was very upset.  Needless to say, the boys went to bed a little early that night.  Probably not as early as I would have put them to bed.  Debbie has more patience than I do.

Despite the eventful day, she still came back the next day.  Wednesday was pretty calm.  Which was a very good thing.

Who wants to watch my kids?  It's sure to give you a good story or two.

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