One of THOSE Days!
Even Bad Days are Good Days

by Jessica Leffew

Have you ever had one of those days?

Hold on I didn't say that quite right. What I meant to say was, "Have you ever had one of THOSE days?"

It started at 12:30 AM. Well, that's what time I went to bed. By 3:30 I was up with my 2 year old who had wandered into our room in search of a warm place between Mom and Dad. I carried him back to his room, mumbling something about, "Just close your eyes, and you'll go right back to sleep." (It always works for me. I don't understand why it doesn't work for him.)

He grabs his sippy cup and shoves it my way saying, "Ice Water." Patiently, knowing that I didn't get the point of the request, he repeats so I will understand, "Ice."

Upon returning with the freshly filled ice water, I hand it to him, kiss him on the forehead, tell him, "I love you," and retreat for my room.

Yeah right. About the time I reach the door, the gentle wail begins. "Lay pillow," which roughly translates into, "Don't go back to your room, where your side of the bed is no longer warm, anyway. Stay here, lay down on my pillow and spend 20 minutes watching me drift off to sleep."

Great news! It only takes 17 minutes to get him back to sleep.

I look at the clock as I head back to bed, and it's now 3:50. My alarm clock is set for 5:00. The forecast is predicting snow and sleet for the morning. My job is to wake up and start taking phone calls of Head Start Center Staff to decide if the weather is bad enough to close them. I go ahead and flip on the TV to see if anyone is already closing schools on one of these bad days of winter.

No luck. That means I still have to wake up at 5:00. Drat!! Even bad days don't cooperate.

5:00 comes way to soon. I quietly go into the living room, flip on the set and get ready to write down all of the school closings. There are none. I head back for the bed, reset the alarm for 6:30 and wait for sleep to claim my mind. At 5:30, the phone rings from one of the Head Start Centers just to let me know that everything is fine. Thanks for that.

At about 8:50, a little boy's hand grabs my arm for a boost into bed. You guessed it! I over-slept. Do your bad days go like this?

After breakfast, a change of clothes, a call to work and a call to the sitter, we're in the car headed away. We play green car, red car until about 5 minutes to the sitter's house. That's when I look in the back seat and see my boy unloading his breakfast into the back of my car. Translated-he threw up. He's also having one of those bad days.

I pull over immediately and try to clean him up. Did I mention, I'm about 5 months pregnant? This didn't go very well. I decide to clean him up when we get to the sitter's house. Water and ventilation will go a long way toward making this better.

He's crying. Bless his heart! He's not crying because he threw up, he's crying because he made a mess. He asks for a wet wipe. I hand him one. He tries to clean up while I drive the remaining miles.

It's 11:00. The day is halfway gone and I still have deadlines due at work that day.

What's my message?

Simply that waiting to have good days before learning to live is a recipe for missing out on life.

Yes, even the bad days comprise life because we all have them. But when I look over and see a tip-toeing little two-year old turning on a light switch by himself for the first time, it reminds me of the importance of not letting life pass by just because I'm having "one of those" days.

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