Responsible Parenting? Not Winning!

So this is my ever-more-lovely firstborn child:



And this is her best friend, our handsome pup Helo:



And this is a stock image of house keys, as I have seen a Lifetime movie or two in my day and don't want a photo of my own on here. So pretend these are my house keys:



And now guess which two out of the three things pictured above I took with me yesterday afternoon on a quick walk around the neighborhood. And which one I left behind.

Hint: the baby was Moby wrapped to my chest and the dog doesn't generally leave the condo unsupervised. So! After more than a year of successfully walking our city dog, which always requires multiple keys to get into gates, entryways, lobbies and apartment or condo doors, and after two months of obsessively checking the diaper bag, my jeans, my jackets, and any pockets on me to ensure I will be able to both lock and unlock my doors with a baby in tow - I suddenly lost my mind and just plowed out into the world without them.

I am definitely the girl whose keys are always 'missing'. I tend to throw them randomly into my bags and or a different pocket every time I go out. But I'm so used to this delightful habit of frantically searching for my cell phone, my keys, or my wallet that I always make a point to 're-find' them before I leave. I'm not sure how I failed this step, because I actually remember patting my jacket pocket on the way out the door and feeling remarkably confident my keys were there.

Anyways, I found myself locked outside our condo building in barely 40 degree weather with a rambunctious dog and a crabby baby who was due for both a diaper change and a feeding. Neat.

This really wasn't a dramatic lockout because we conveniently live across the street from Jessica and Jakob, who happened to be just walking out the door with their new puppy Marshall. After retracing my steps (because I was convinced I had dropped the keys and the idea that I left them sitting on the counter never once crossed my mind), I just plunked down at their place. Helo thought this was a surprise bonus round to our walk and Matilda spends almost as much time there as she does at our place, so those two just carried on as usual - he ran around in happy circles, she was quickly distracted from her crabbing by the riveting ceiling fan.

Joshua borrowed his coworkers car, drove into the city during rush hour, and let us back in to our place before Matilda blew through a diaper. Then, because Joshua's work life is a little intense these days, he drove back out to the burbs to work for a few more hours.

None of the really awful things that crossed my mind (the baby gets frostbite! my cell phone dies! it begins hailing!) came close to happening. It wasn't much more than an annoying hiccup in an otherwise very nice week. However it was quite the responsible parenting fail, and I felt terrible for inconveniencing Joshua and for allowing even the possibility of all those worst case scenarios (I thought up one where I didn't have my phone, no one was around,I had to feed the baby outside,she soaked through her outfit in the cold and Joshua found us huddled up by back gate sleeping under the dog at 10pm - dramatic!).

Then today I was holding Matilda while Marshall was visiting, and in all of his adorable gangly excitement, he nibbled at her hand with his sharp puppy teeth. She was absolutely fine, there wasn't even a dent on one of her pudgy fingers, and she hollered for a second and then promptly fell asleep. But this does make me the mother who locked herself out of the house with the baby (who could care less) and then less than 24 hours later, let her wittle sweetheart get snacked on by a poor puppy who certainly cannot be faulted for wanting to get as close as possible to all those delicious baby smells (and again, after her initial surprise, she could care less).

So despite my best efforts, everyone is surviving and thriving around here.