Multitasking Mother of Many Leaves One Behind

It was bound to happen, it was just a matter of time. This afternoon went something like this:

3:45pm--Pick up I. and take her to gymnastics
Stop on way home to get pumpkin doughnuts
Eat doughnuts
4:45pm--Take L. and his teammate that we carpool with to soccer practice.
5:00pm--Pick up D. from football practice
Nurse A. and change clothes
5:30pm--Go for a 1.6 mile jog
5:50pm--Pick up I. from gymnastics and take D. to soccer practice (yes, he plays 2 sports)

I really wanted to go running, as I am working toward a 5K turkey trot on Nov. 13. I got a late start getting in shape, so am now adding a tenth of a mile to my run every day that I run, so I will be at 3.1 miles just in time for the race. I am not compteting, just doing it for the sake of being able to (and because I am so competitive, when my friend said she thought it would take me much longer than 4 months to work up to my 5K/3.1 mile goal, because it took her longer, I immediately decided to do it). I usually run 3-4 days a week. I developed plantar's faschiaitis in one foot over the summer, and because I wasted some time hoping it would get better on its own before going to the doctor, only to be told that it will take months of stretching exercises to get better, but that running wouldn't make it worse, I actually began training seriously 7 weeks prior to the race.

I digress. When I returned home after my run, sweating and breathless, D. was loading and buckling K. and A. into the car. He knew we would have no time to spare and didn't want to be late to soccer practice. As we headed down the road, K. said, "Where's T., mommy?" Luckily we'd only gone about 1/4 mile or so when he said this. I was horrified to realize that I'd left my 5 year old daughter home alone. She had been upstairs playing quietly and it hadn't occurred to D. to herd her out to the car, and I hadn't noticed her absence. I wasn't really worried that she would have gotten into anything dangerous or that anything bad would have happened, but mostly concerned about how upset she would be. She is in a rather insecure phase, and wants to be near me most of the time. I was hoping that she would not have noticed that we left. As luck would have it, she didn't! I told D. my fear, and so he went into the house to round her up and did NOT mention that we'd already left and came back for her! She skipped merrily down the path to the car, oblivious to what had transpired.

Hopefully it won't happen again!