Missing You

Greetings! It is I, the worst mother ever! The mother who brought her two children to a birthday party twenty-four hours and fifteen minutes late. And I thought the fifteen minutes was bad. There I was, standing on the doorstep of a total stranger's home, my oldest son in tears, and me holding my younger son in one arm and his shoes in another like some hillbilly who can't keep her kid dressed.
How could this have happened? I must have checked the invite 100 times reading and rereading the directions. I was so sure the party was today! So sure in fact that originally I was going to take the kids to Waltham to the Charles River Museum of Industry but then cancelled that outing because I realized it conflicted with the party.
It was worse than the time I brought C, clad in his pajamas, one day late to "pajama story time" at the main library.
I know what you're thinking - why didn't I put two and two together? I was late, and yet there were no cars in the driveway. I should have caught my mistake before getting out of the car. But here's the rub, there was a line of cars further up the road and the invite said there would be walking in the woods, so I thought maybe the on-time parents had been instructed to park near a path or something.
Luckily, while at the toy store this morning, I purchased a backyard Wigglin' Water Sprinkler along with the party gift. The party gift, as always, was a challenge. I never know what to buy, my only direction coming from my son in the form of: "I think Logan likes Spiderman." So I purchased this souped-up water sprinkler for the backyard and then immediately regretted it. I ran through the regular water sprinkler when I was a kid, shouldn't that be good enough for my kids? I was going to return it but it sure ended up coming in handy. It helped cheer the kids up and eased the trauma that comes with having a mother who can't read a party invitation.
To his credit, Logan's grandpa was extremely nice about it and even gave the kids party hats.

song: Missing You • artist: John Waite