You Pee on it, You Buy it

Earlier this evening we went to Home Depot to shop for patio furniture. As we stood at the service desk arranging for payment and delivery of a table, chairs and umbrella, I was quietly congratulating myself on having accomplished a difficult errand in a remarkably short amount of time, and looking forward to going out to dinner afterwards.

Ben's birthday-party-induced hyperactivity had gotten on my nerves, and I had sent him to sit on a lawn mower until we were finished. My self-congratulations were interrupted by a morose announcement from Ben: "I peed," he said.

I picked him up off the lawn mower to see my worse fears realized: there was a puddle of yellow underneath him, and as I stood him up he started making a puddle on the floor too.

I hustled Ben out to the car as fast as I could leaving Joel with the baby to finish up our purchase. When Joel emerged a few minutes later, Ben was enjoying the novelty of being half-naked in his car seat.

"Did you have to buy a lawn mower too?" I asked as Joel handed me the receipt.

"Nah," he said. "I just pretended I didn't notice."

Good plan.