The Baby Whisperer

Well there are some days that you are on the top of your game and there are some days that you are not. Today did not turn out to be one of my days to shine. Now that I have only one more step to be a liscensed child-care provider for the state of Maryland (the final inspection is schedule for Wednesday!!) you would think I could handle a couple of kids. Oh, but not today...
I had Scarlett and her best friend Connor outside playing this afternoon. It was so warm out--we were thrilled to enjoy it. While Connor is steering the bubble mower around the yard, Scarlett faceplants onto the brick patio. She screams, and her face is covered with blood. I get her inside and cleaned up to discover a scraped up nose and a goose-egg forehead. The only thing that got her to stop crying was a popsicle. My poor little thing. But she did want to play still. So did Connor. So we went back out and we were kicking around a soccor ball. It lands in a decorative koi pond. The pond is cute, but would never pass inspection, so we got fill dirt and rocks and planned to fill it in this weekend. Unfortunately that was not soon enough. When the ball landed in the pond, Connor's dog jumped in after it. Conner sees this and yells "Jump!" Then jumps feet first into the pond. He is now belly-button deep in the pond. I run over and pull his screaming, frantic body out and am overcome with a stench I have never encountered before in my life. If ten thousand elephants were to defecate in a hole and then fifty overweight men threw their week-old gym clothes into that same hole, it would only begin to rival this smell. The poor child had to be stripped comeletely nude before he could even go into the house!
Perhaps I need to accept that today is not my day and be sure to bring my A game tomorrow! Sorry Scarlett and Connor!