why i make such a great mother

So two days ago was Sunday, a day of church (hah! bet you thought i was going to say rest! well, there is no day of rest when you have children. and, if you're mormon, there's certainly no such thing as the sabbath being a "day of rest"). a week from last sunday, ryan and i attempted to shower and dress ourselves and our two young children and make it to our church meeting starting at 12:30. we almost did not make it. this is partly due to the fact that seth decided he was hungry just as we were putting him in his car seat. and then there was that moment when ava took her hand, dipped it in her cereal bowl, swished it around for good measure and then proceeded to wipe it dry on her hair. this was following the conversation ryan and i had about bathing children (silly me, i wanted to bathe them all).

"hey ry, will you put her in the bath?"

"why, is she dirty?"

"well, yeah. and she hasn't bathed since thursday morning."

"she doesn't smell bad to me."

"it's been three days since her last bath. she's dirty."

"i think we should only bathe our children if they smell."

yes, spoken like a true man. sadly, bath or no bath, the milk in the hair was done right before we left. ava's head dried to a nice crispy cowlick that was immovable. she also had just discovered a headband and refused to either leave it in or leave it at home. so on top of the cowlick made of milk, she also was sporting a very badly placed headband.

we made it, but by the time hour one was over, i was exhausted. and, since i'd just had a baby, i got to go home (lucky me). my mother had left her car keys with me when i promised that we'd drive my brothers home from church, so i told ryan i was leaving and taking the baby and drove home.

drove home to realize that the house key was on ryan's keychain and not my mother's. so i sat outside on the patio and nursed my baby. like i was some sort of placenta-burying woman or something. then ryan came home with my brothers and, "where's ava?" was asked by all.

it was asked because we'd left her at church. somehow, ryan thought that i was taking both kids home with me and i thought i was taking half of the kids home with me. we stink.

so ryan rushed back to the church building and i called and left messages with ava's teachers. lucky for ava, my dad was still at the church building and ava's teacher simply handed her over. ava thought she'd just been the lucky winner of some extra grandpa time. i am, meanwhile, feeling an awful amount of guilt and wondering just how much therapy i'm going to need to get over this.