I'm Officially Crazy

I think I have finally lost it, and anyone in the Safeway parking lot on Saturday--including four of Annandale's finest firemen, would agree with me.

I've been trying to move Evan to one nap a day, so I thought I would be tricky and hit the grocery store during his morning "sleepy time" in order to keep him up a few hours longer.

As soon as I pulled into the Safeway parking lot, he closed his eyes. He had only been asleep for about 30 seconds by the time I parked, so I thought I could easily wake him up. I got him out of his car seat and kept talking to him, but he wouldn't open his eyes. By the time I entered the store, I conceded defeat and decided I should just take him home because obviously I couldn't shop with a sleeping toddler.

I turned around, went back to the car and put Evan in his seat. I was headed to the driver's side when I realized I didn't have my keys. "I must have put them down in the car while I put Evan in," I thought. I went back to the back door and tried to open it. Locked. I looked in and saw the keys next to Evan's car seat. I tried the front passenger door. Locked. This is when I started to get worried. I looked in my bag again to see if I had the extra set. No luck. Safeway is only a few minutes from our house, but Bryan was working in downtown D.C. on Saturday and was at least an hour away. Even if Bryan had been home, I realized I didn't have my cell phone. I looked around and there was NO ONE in the parking lot. I looked for payphones but there weren't any. Finally a lady walked by. "Ma'am," I yelled. She looked at me. "Do you have a cell phone I could use." She told me no and started to hurry away. In hingsight, this is where I lost all sense of rational thought.

I started to cry and yelled at her that I had just locked my baby in the car. My helpless little baby and it was starting to get really hot outside. She whipped out her cell phone and called 911 for me. I thanked her for helping (even though I wanted to tell her I knew she was lying when she said she didn't have a phone). I think the fire department arrived in about five minutes, but it felt like forever. By this time I was crying hysterically. HYSTERICALLY. Right as the hook-and-ladder fire truck was pulling up, a passerby noticed the commotion and came over to help. His assistance including trying to open the driver's door. THE DRIVER'S DOOR, which I hadn't tried. Guess what? The driver's door was UNLOCKED. The whole time. I have never felt like such an a** in my life. I started crying even harder. I think for a split second I actually caught myself wishing the driver's door would have been locked!

He unlocked all the doors and I grabbed Evan out just in time to apologize to the three firefighters who had jumped out of the truck and run up to my car (the driver stayed behind the wheel, but I'm sure he thought I was crazy, too). Evan was asleep the whole time, so he had no clue what was going on. I was crying my awful, ugly, heaving shoulder hard cry, which is also pretty loud. The firefighters told me not to worry and it wasn't a problem. I stood in the parking lot holding Evan for a bit and crying after everyone left. Finally Evan looked at me and started to laugh. I don't know if he thought my sobs were laughs or if he was just trying to change the subject! We eventually packed it up and went home and saved our shopping for later.