Return to reality

Yesterday was our first day back at school after the break and it did not get off to the best start.  I left my keys in the house and of course had locked the door behind me as we headed out to the car so I had to call Charles to come let us in.  Since he works all the way downtown (and had just gotten there) we had about 40 minutes to kill.  It was chilly but not too terrible while we sat in the car and waited.  The girls were wonderful about the wait and we played I Spy for a while then they both decided to read for a little bit.  Our Knight in Shining Khakis arrived home and we made it school 35 minutes late (but only five minutes after school actually started). 

My assistant Carol had the children settled (she is wonderful!) and was reading to them, one little girl was working on putting her coat away, she is very into "I do it myself" so we have learned to give her space until she asks for help.  I don't know if it was coming back after a nine day break or she was just in a mood as she sometimes is but I walked in and she burst into tears.  So before I had a chance to put my own things away and get settled I stopped to offer a hug and get her calmed.  Under normal circumstances this would have been no big deal to me but because I was feeling frazzled I hadn't had the chance to leave my emotional "stuff" at the door so I am not sure I was as comforting as I would have liked.

But we both got settled and the rest of the day went well.  Thankfully Charles was still home when we left this morning so if I had forgotten my keys again he was here to let me back in.  The thing that bothers me about all of this is that this was the second time in less than a week that I locked us out of the house, my mom had to come to my rescue last week.  Prior to these two incidents I think I have only locked myself out maybe three or four times in my entire life.  Early onset Alzheimer's?  Brain still on spring break?  Mommyhood rearing its ugly head?  Perhaps a little of all three...all I know is from now on I'm keeping an extra house key in the car.