The One Where No One's Ready

Have you ever seen that episode of friends called "The One Where No One's Ready"? In a nutshell, Ross has an important award dinner to attend but none of the other friends are ready and they spend the entire episode encountering one obstacle and distraction after another and Ross becomes increasingly frustrated to the point of a meltdown. (It's really much funnier than my description.) Anyway, I think we were trapped in that episode yesterday. It was just a trip to the ice cream stand. It sounds completely innocuous, doesn't it? Especially since said stand is .3 mile from our house and we would be gone less than 45 minutes. "Let's take a walk and get some ice cream," I said, completely oblivious to the enormous amount of planning and preparation I should have considered beforehand. "Sure," Andy replied and it all went downhill from there.

Janelle, upon hearing the word ice cream, had already dashed to the back door and halfway down the steps to put her shoes on. Unfortunately, she was desperately due for a diaper change. Have you ever tried to convince a 2 year old that it's a good idea to delay departure for ice cream in order to change their diaper? Not fun. Then Lilly, not wanting to be left out and already so desperate to be like her big sister, filled the house with an indescribable but unmistakable aroma. So Andy, being the great Dad that he is, stepped up to the plate and tackled that "little" development as well as the clothing change that was the inevitable result. (On a side note, since becoming a mother, I will never again eat butterscotch pudding.) Next, of course, I decided that everyone needed sunscreen. Now everyone was re-diapered and slathered in sunblock (some less happy about it than others). Andy stood holding the Bjorn for Lilly, obviously ready to "get this show on the road". Not quite. I had to pee. So Andy waited at the bottom of the stairs doing his best not to sigh TOO loudly because as long as I was upstairs I had to change my shirt and run a brush through my hair. I finished, loaded Lilly into the Bjorn and then we were ready...almost. First, we had to play the great Sunglass Hunt since us girls all needed our sunglasses. Janelle's were in the car, mine were in the mudroom, and Lilly's were in her diaper bag in her room. Phew. Clean diapers? Check. Appropriate attire? Check. Sunblock? Check. Visit to the bathroom? Check. Sunglasses? Check. Money? Ahhh... nope. At this point, I think Andy showed tremendous restraint to not just jump in the car and go without us. He did remark on the walk, however, that it's only going to get worse now that he's living with 3 women. I didn't have the heart to tell him that in a few years, his wait-time to get in the bathroom will make this trip seem like a breeze.