Are You My Mother?

The day dawned bright and clear. . .

Never mind. I was never allowed to write that sentence in my English classes. But what if it's true?? Oh well. It is true and it was an absolutely beautiful day- bright and clear, even.

After school, the three "big" boys were out the door, enjoying the sunshine and playing with their little friends. I opened all the windows so I could "drink in" the fresh air. I went downstairs and played with Spencer in a nice, quiet house, listening to the sound of laughter through the open windows.

Suddenly, Ryan burst through the door exclaiming, "Andrew and Ben ran away! They just distappeared!" I told him to watch Spencer and I ran out the door in my bare feet. I knew they didn't "run away," but they do wander, so the sooner I caught up with them the better. Well, thirty seconds later I found them playing in the neighbors' side yard. All was well and I made my way back home.

I looked up at the house and noticed an adorable little ball of chub crawling down our steep driveway, with my keys in one of his hands. I cried, "Spencer!" (because it was Spencer, by the way) and I ran and picked him up. As soon as he saw me he started cracking up, so proud of himself that he had found me in the great outdoors. I must not have closed the door all the way and he had crawled out, crawled down the step into the garage, across the disgusting garage floor, filthy after months of caked-up mud and snow, onto the driveway, and apparently beginning a long journey to find his mother.

His hands and the tops of his chubby little feet were covered in mud and dirt and he had oil or some sort of black substance on the knees of his jeans. But, he looked up at me with the greatest look of triumph any ten-month-old ever had.

Anyway, I laughed and hugged him and of course, looked over my shoulder to see if any "grown-ups" had witnessed my baby crawling across the dirty ground. Let the fun begin!