Bad Bad Mom

So yesterday I did something that makes me feel like a rotten mom.  Our hometeacher stopped us at church and asked us if he could come for a visit right after.  We said that would be fine, but Chad had to do a few things for the bishop and would be right behind us.  I got the kids loaded in the car and told the kids that when we got home I wanted them to hurry inside and pick up everything they could because we had left the house unhometeacher ready.  So everyone raced in and we cleaned up just in the niche of time for the hometeacher to show up.  He visited for a little bit and left.  I got dinner in the oven and Chad and I started to peel some potatoes when I started thinking about how quiet Lafe had been.  I thought he must have gone upstairs and was hanging out with Grandma and Uncle Jeff and Uncle Brady or possibly he had fallen asleep.  I went and asked upstairs if they had seen him.  They said no.  I looked around to see if maybe he had fallen asleep somewhere but new that wasn't likely since he had taken a nap during church.  I started to relay to Chad how I was really worried that I couldn't find Lafe.  We both raced outside and went right for the car.  As we looked in the windows there was Lafe smiling at us buckled in his car seat.  He had managed to get his shoes and pants off but was unable to get himself out the his seat.  It was apparent that he had been crying earlier but had been in there long enough that the crying phase had stopped and he was just waiting.  He had been in there for about an hour.  Oh the guilt!  I can only imagine how scared he must have been.  

This only reminds me of another experience when Isaac was about Lafe's age and Shina was a baby.  At the time we were finishing up building our house in Cedar Hills and living in a basement apartment in Highland.  If I remember right it was Chad's birthday and we had been moving a few things over to our new house and then had to stop to go to Chad's parents for his birthday.  It was about 10:00 at night when we got home.  We had left a few things outside and realized because of the cold night that we needed to move them.  Both of the kids were asleep in their carseats.  I carried Shina inside and put her in bed.  I then got in bed and Chad came shortly after.  We were sound asleep when we started to hear Isaac crying.  We got up to go get him from his room when we realized that the crying was coming from outside.  We then realized that we had left Isaac asleep in his carseat outside and was luckily able to climb out and open the door and come to the door.  If he would not have been able to get out he would have spent the whole night in the car and froze.   I am so grateful that my kids have so far survived having me as a mom.  It reminds me that I need to be more careful.  But it's times like this that I feel like a bad, bad mom.