Monday was a very, very bad day...

This is a long post, so get ready! On Monday, I wore my highest heels, the ones I got when I traveled to Colombia last year.  I had a good Monday, and good Mondays are unusual!  And then I went to pick up my baby as I do every weekday.  It had stormed that morning and it was kinda sticky hot, not crazy hot like it can get, but hot.

I picked up Noah and headed to the car.  I had brought a box home from work, and to be able to fit Noah in the car, I had to sit him down and move the box. I threw my keys in my seat, and put the precious boy in, shut the door, and walked around to my side.  And then I had about 14 heart attacks - the door was locked and I could see through the window that the passenger door was locked too.  Noah was locked in the car with the windows up!  I died a little, and then ran inside and grabbed the director and asked her to bring her cell phone as mine was locked up. She came out, checked out the situation, and stopped me from breaking the glass right then. She went inside and called 911 and they told her someone would be there right away.   

I tried to call Matty because we have a spare set at home.  I could not get his phone number or my phone number straight.  I bet I misdialed 6 times and called myself during one of those.  He didn't answer, so I left him a message.  Noah was calm at the moment, and some very smart person brought a towel over and put it on the window to shade him.  About this time, he started to cry, and I could see sweat forming on his forehead.  I don't think he had ever really sweat all that much before this day.  Babies don't sweat like adults do. It was 5:30, so it seemed that everyone who at Stepping Stones was there to pick up their child.  Oh, how the minutes drug on!  Matty called back and I started to cry - he was super sweet and in a rush to try to get home and get the spare keys.  Every car that turned into daycare, I hoped would be the police.   And all the parents were so sweet.  Everyone kept asking if we were okay.  A nice lady who works at Payless came over to help me, she just hugged me a lot and kept giving me kleenexes.  

Noah was crying and sweating a lot.  He kept looking at me through the window, as if to say, "Okay Mom, it's hot - can you get me out now?"  I talked to him through the glass the whole time.  I finally said to Hilary, who works at Payless, how much longer do I wait before I break the glass, and she said 5 minutes.  In the meantime, Noah's daycare room was having a staff meeting at 6:00, so his teacher came over to help.  I cried a little more when I saw her, but I was so glad to see her.  Right about this time, a tow truck followed by a police car pulled in and in about a minute, they had the door open.  I climbed in and got Noah out of the seat.  And Colleen, his teacher, had a sippy cup of water and two cool washcloths to put over his head.  He stopped crying right when he got out of the car, and he was a little more interested in seeing the police car and the tow truck than he was in worrying about his health.  I took him inside and Matty arrived.  He was so supportive - wonderful as always.  Noah's cheeks were a little pink, but he seemed fine.  Matty drove Noah home in my car and I took Matty's car home since I was a little "shook up".  Noah was fine all evening, but we did go ahead and call the doctor.  They told us if he was smiling, he was fine, and Noah was smiling, despite the trauma I had put him through.

It took me a few days to recover from putting my baby in harm's way. (And the air conditioner has been down VERY VERY LOW ever since - I'm freezing my butt off!  - Matty)  It was an honest, easy mistake, but a mistake nonetheless.

Daycare has been amazing too; I'm pretty sure that they were instructed not to bring it up to me because not one person has even mentioned it.  And I guess a lot of parents told the director to tell me that they had done it too.  Still it was the scariest moments we have had with Noah.  But if it's that's the worst that happens, then we're O.K.!