Sophie and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

It was a bad day.  {For Sophie.}  She got left behind at the ice cream parlor, she almost split her head open on a banister, and she finished her evening off by throwing up after eating something she was allergic to.  Wednesday's child is full of woe even on a Tuesday.  Poor little lamb.

Here's how the incidents played themselves out today.  First up -- the outing.  Scott's parents got in town yesterday evening and this afternoon we decided to all go out for ice cream and then take the little kids over to a children's museum that was just a few doors down.  What a fun idea, right?  And it totally was fun except for that one major oversight.  I think the main problem here was that we were a BIG group and it's easy for chaos and confusion to reign in such a setting.  Even with Scott staying home to watch Alex and Jane who were napping, we still had a total of 13 people with us -- 9 of which were kids.  As I was checking out and paying for the candy that Sophie had eaten in place of ice cream {she was allergic to everything on the menu}, the older kids were leaving to go back home in a separate car and Scott's mom was taking the little ones down the street to the Kids Commons while Kristin and I were still at the register. 

















Well, as I made my way over to the children's museum, I spent a leisurely 5 or 10 minutes looking through books at a book fair that was set-up in the foyer while the rest of the kids had scattered off to play.  {It's a fairly small museum which makes it pretty easy to keep an eye on all of the kiddies.  A bit ironic, don't you think?}  At this point I heard a voice over the intercom asking if there was a Jessica in the building and would she please come to the front desk.  I was right there, so I went over and asked what was wrong and they asked me if I had a Sophie.  "Yes," I said very confusedly, to which the lady replied, "she's down at Zaharako's,"  and I was like "What, what, say what???"  Okay not really, but I WAS completely confused and had no idea what she could possibly be talking about because I thought for sure she had come over with the rest of the kids.  As I was {speed} walking to the door it dawned on me that Sophie had left the table to go to the bathroom toward the end of our jaunt there and it occurred to me that I hadn't seen her come back before everyone started getting up to go.  WHAT A TERRIBLE MOTHER I AM!!!!!!  As I walked in the ice cream parlor everyone was really nice and comforting and led me straight to the back where Sophie was sitting with a couple of workers coloring a picture and sipping a lemonade.  Thank goodness she was sharp enough to remember where we were going after ice cream because she didn't know my cell phone number to tell the workers.  {Not that I had it on me anyway because  I am a TERRIBLE mother.}

As we walked down to the Kids Commons I asked her for her version of the story.  Here it is.

Me {clinging tightly to her hand}:  Sophie, I am SO SORRY!!!!  Were you so scared??  What happened?  How did you know what to do?  You were so brave!!!! What did you do first?

Sophie:  When I came out of the bathroom I couldn't see anybody so I went outside.

Me:  You went outside???

Sophie:  Yeah, but I still couldn't see anybody so I went to see if the car was still there.

Me:  What????  Did you walk all the way to the car????  {It was about a block and half down the street.}

Sophie:  Yeah.  But I looked both ways before I crossed the street.

Me {clapping my hand over my mouth half laughing and half THIS CLOSE from breaking out into full hysteria and crying.}

Sophie {looking at me in alarm}:  What's wrong?

Me:  I'm just so glad you're okay!!!! What did you do next?  Did you go back to Zaharako's?

Sophie:  Yeah, and then a lady asked me if I lost my family. And they took me to the back and gave me some lemonade and let me color.

Me:  Wow!  I'm so glad you were okay!!!  That was so good that you remembered we were going to Kids Commons.  Were you scared?

Sophie:  Yeah.

And there you have it.  Luckily she DID have an awesome time once she was at the children's museum and -- as always -- made a few new friends while we were there.  Hopefully that is enough to counterbalance any terror she felt from being left behind!!

Her next big incident occured right before dinner and after she had taken a bath.  As she was getting dressed she slipped or tripped and ended up smacking her forehead on the corner of one of the square banisters at the top of the stairs.  Luckily the skin didn't break, and there was no actual blood spilt, but what she has instead is a bulging bruise with a purple line down the middle.  Now she has a matching mark for the scar on the other side of her forehead! 




She calmed down after a bit and kept an ice pack on her forehead until it was time to eat and then was so happy and excited to have spaghetti for dinner and strawberry shortcake for dessert.  Of course, it was just her luck that the angel food cake she ate caused some kind of reaction and she eventually threw everything up a little while later.  It is a bit odd, though, because even though she's allergic to eggs -- and angel  food cake IS mostly egg whites -- she's usually fine when it's baked in things.  And she's had strawberry shortcake several times.  It's usually what she chooses for her birthday cake each year.  The only thing that was different this time was that it was from the store rather than made at home from a box mix like we usually do.  So who knows!!! 

All in all it was a rough day for the super muppet!  The thing that is so great about Sophie, though, is that once she's happy again, she's COMPLETELY happy.  The rest of her evening has been great.  She's gone to see fireworks with the cousins, played games with everyone, and is currently involved in some elaborate scheme of make-believe with the others.  In the end, all's well that ends well!