Thursday Mickey took the day off to be with Lily.
Here is his story:
Lil and I packed up the diaper bag and took off for New Ulm Thursday morning. She had a clean diaper and a full tummy before we took off, so the drive down went very smooth. Our first stop was to Grandma's office so that she could show her off to her co-workers. She soaked in the attention and received many compliments about her beautiful blue eyes. But she started to cry at the end of the tour so I walked quickly to the exit. She cried all the way to Great Grandma Ad's which was our next destination. It had been three hours since we departed from home so I knew the diaper would be wet and that she'd be hungry. Soon the crying turned to into a full force meltdown! Nothing is worse than a baby girl with tears running down her cheeks. Normally I'd hand her off to Anne in this situation but it was all on me. So I ran into Great Grandma's house, took her out of the car seat that was soaked in baby sweat, changed the diaper in record time while I ordered GG to mix up a bottle of formula STAT! Lil sucked the bottle down and was soon back to her normal self.
The rest of the day was spent at Grandma and Grandpa's house. They got to spend some much needed quality time with her. My cousin Corey and Aunt Joanne also stopped by so it was great for Lily to see her Wiltscheck relatives.
Before long Lily and I were on the road again heading back home. I was exhausted from the long day so I hoped the drive would be easy. The weather was perfect, the roads were dry and we were listening to some Beethoven as we watched the sunset over the beautiful flat lands of southern MN. But soon the whimpering started. I was able to reach back to her car seat to shove the nuk back into her mouth, but that only held her off for a few minutes. I was about an hour away from home so I was praying that she'd hold on. But the tears started flowing again! So I pulled into the nearest gas station. I tried to soothe her crying with her in the seat but something was wrong. So I took her out of the car and walked her around the parking lot. I then noticed that I was at some run down trucker joint so Cooter and Cletus Redneck were just staring at me like I was Clark Griswold in the family truckster. I then felt a soggy wet substance on my hands...yep, she pooped out of her diaper into her pants. So I laid her down in my backseat while I cleaned up the greenish/brown/orange crap from her bottom. I thought that the crying would subside....but my luck was running out. Anne has taught me that I need to check three things when she's upset. She's either hungry, needs to burp or has a dirty diaper. So I jumped into the backseat and mixed up a bottle. It was then that I had a moment of clarity. I was stressed out, my own bladder was full and I just wanted to get home! For some reason I started to think what the 21 year old/college/party guy Mickey would think about this situation. So I envisioned my younger self walking by the car and saying, "that poor dude, it must suck to deal with a crying, stinky baby all the time.....what a loser." Just the thought made me bust out in laughter and turned my mood around. Now the truckers were really staring at me! Soon enough Lily was fully satisfied so I put her stained clothes in my trunk, strapped her into the car seat wearing just a diaper, turned the Beethoven back on and got the hell out of dodge!
Anne saw the look on my face as soon as I got home and quickly took Lily from my arms. I went straight to bed, but before I could fall asleep I couldn't help but think that I'll never forget this experience for the rest of my life. And better yet, after this day I know that I can handle anything. So I'm no longer fearful of taking Lily on my own.....which makes my wife very happy.
Mickey
