Silly, Silly, Silly me

I was protecting my child.

It makes me feel better about the story I am about to divulge to remember that it all happened because I was trying to keep Zoey out of danger. She isn't afraid of much. Dogs right up in her personal space freak her out a little bit. Other than that, no fear. I've been trying to teach her to not run into the street. She might have a car obsession (Papa, your genes here?)

So, this morning, when we left the apartment and I helped her down two flights of stairs while carrying the folded stroller and she ran towards the moving car leaving our parking garage, I dropped everything to step in and retrieve her from imminent doom. Crisis averted. Whew! We had a nice chat with our neighbor on his way to work.

Then, we were off to the church where I would leave Zoey with a lovely woman who would watch her while I was able to go to the temple, which was very refreshing. "There must be opposition in all things," someone quoted to me later in the day.

I picked Zoey up and we made our way back home.....slowly......VERY SLOWLY. Little miss thing didn't want to get in her stroller. Fine. I wasn't going to fight her on that one. She walked and I pushed the stroller. She drug her fingers along the chain link fence of the ball field. She ran in the grass by the patron apartments. She waved at the group of zone leader missionaries mulling outside the mission home. She stopped in the Public Affairs office to get a drink of water. With it taking so long to get home, and me having to continually stop her from running into the parking lot, I was tired and thought a quick visit to the visitors center would revive me and finally tire her out and we could go home.

Not so. It was a fight getting the munchkin into the stroller and she whined the rest of the way home.

Home at last. Home at last. Lunch then naptime. But wait, no keys. What? No keys! I checked the stroller and the diaper bag each 4 times before buzzing a neighbor. Indeed my deadbolt was locked, which meant I had my keys when I left the apartment, but I couldn't find them ANYWHERE. Oh no! Not back at the church. Okay, I walked my tired self back to the church, while my delightful neighbor kept Zoey. Eyes peeled, I looked for the keys along our path. No luck. I asked security and workers if they'd seen keys. No luck. I went back to the room we'd been in at the church. No luck. I stopped along the way to call Kevin and have him come home from work to let us in the apartment. A lovely woman at the temple apartments offered me a ride (I looked pretty worse for the wear).

Back in my neighbor's apartment Zoey and I waited for Kevin. He knocked on the door and gently tossed keys into the room. Not just any keys. MY KEYS.

"Where did you get these?" I stammered.

Apparently, I left the keys on the ledge of the planter in front of our apartment. I would have passed them 3 times in all of my searching, sitting right there, waiting for me to claim them. He had parked his motorbike on the lawn, started up the stairs and saw them in plain sight.

Why would my keys be on the ledge? I must have put them there in order to run and save her from the car in the driveway earlier that morning. I was protecting my child.

I was protecting my child.

That is a much better way to think about today's episode than: I can't believe I was so dumb.

I was protecting my child. Sounds much better, right?