“I didn’t get him; I thought you did.”

We were driving a little while ago, and I was reminded of something that happened when Simon was maybe about a year and a half.

There’s just so much for parents of small children to remember. You know that. You recall the diaper bags, wipes, ointment—gotta have the pink butt cream—bottles, formula—in that little deal with portions sectioned for fathers like me who might forget how much to use if we had to measure it ourselves—snacks, toys or books, a change of clothes…. Yeah, there’s a lot.

Plus, when Simon was one and a half, Finn was five and a half, and, while his list wasn’t quite so extensive, there were certainly things we needed to have for him as well.

It’s a lot. If you’ve never been in the situation and you ever wonder why a young mother is often late, it’s probably because a young mother always has a laundry list of things to keep up with.

So, it was the four of us going somewhere, and while I inagine I helped Becky get the boys ready to a point, I can’t imagine I helped too much. Still, while I don’t recall that aspect of this particular trip, I’m sure everything got taken care of. With Becky, it always did. She might have been a minute or three late for something, but her boys had what they needed.

The thing that wasn’t taken care of on this day wasn’t Becky’s fault, as it wasn’t one of the things that automatically fell under her purview. It wasn’t my fault either. Rather, it was one of those things that she did sometimes while I did others; that’s why it got missed that day I guess. I must have assumed she was going to do it and she must have assumed I had already done it, and it just didn’t get done.

And what was it? Well, we’d gotten to Gettysburg, which, having left from Orrtanna, means we’d been driving for about 20 minutes. And all is going well until I look in my rear view mirror and  I see Simon, and he’s just taking a stroll across the floor of  the back seat.

Of course, once we get him taken care of and the potential for danger—however slight—had passed, it was one of those things that you just laugh about and say things like, “How crazy was that?”, but in the moment it was a bit jarring to look back and see our toddler toddling around the back of the car.

And there it was, Simon’s first illegal act. It might not seem like much of anything, but it’s a slippery slope, and it only gave a nod to worse things ahead; it wasn’t long before he was shoplifting grapes.

So, none of us think of everything all of the time, which is good, because that’s where some of the good stories come from.

Hope you have a stellar week, friends. I’ll see you back here sometime soon.