Charlie the key fiend

Charlie is a key fiend. He loves keys. He knows exactly whos keys belong to who and he can spot a pair of useless keys anywhere. He knows that keys open doors and has been known to shove random keys into random keyholes whether they fit or not. He also has a fondness for hiding keys. We keep our keys high on a key rack but Charlie has learned to drag the 10 pound bucket of dry milk over to the rack, climb on it and sort through the keys to find the exact ones he is looking for. Once he finds them he usually takes them to their respective owner but he has been known to hide them in very hard places, like under the cereal in the bottom of the cereal box. Then came today...

Coloring on the sidewalk and drawing "Hopscotches"

Blowing Bubbles

Poor puffy eye looks much better now...

Today began a little bit off skelter when Charlie woke up with his right eye swollen shut. He has had a lingering cold that we just haven't been able to kick for a while now. When Jack came home from school and saw Charlie's eye he felt sorry for him and said that daddy should use his oil drops to make him all better. We decided that was a good idea, so Adam went to give charlie a blessing. Charlie sat on my lap and before we knew it, Jack had laid both his hands on Charlie's head and was starting to pray. Adam and I had a teaching moment and took the opportunity to teach Jack about priesthood and how only worthy Daddy men could hold the priesthood. He asked, "How to you hold a priesthood?" Adam gave Charlie a Father's Blessing and then had to go back to school. I decided I would try and track down a doctor to check his eye out, "Pray first and then do all you can do...."

After spending all morning talking on the phone to Doctors in Greensboro, Eden and Martinsville, and being told that noone was taking on any new patients. (Especially crazy ones who called and wanted to be seen the same day). Our appointment was for 1:50 and like the responsible Mom that I am, (cough cough...) I started getting the kids into the car at 1:20 (it was only 3 minutes away). Charlie climbed in the car and as I was looking for my keys, HE LOCKED HIMSELF IN! I couldn't find my keys anywhere and was getting upset because we couldn't be late to the only Doctor who would see us... I instructed jack to teach charlie how to unlock the doors, and after searching through all the usual places, and all the cereal boxes and food storage bins, I finally found a spare key and was able to unlock the door. BUT, then the car wouldn't start! I called around and finally found Laura who was able to come and rescue us and take us to the doctor. Adam got out of school early to come help too. In the end the "Doctor" was a new grad PA and she just gave us a perscription for a nebulizer and told us to put warm rags on his eye, which we had been doing all along. I don't even know why we bother going to the doctor anyway...

It was an adventurous day and after 3 hours of waiting in the pharmacy, we had our nebulizer, our meds and were on our way. We had to go to the chips salsa place to celebrate. Then we came home and played sidewalk chalk and bubbles and everyone felt much better.

(postnote: We looked and looked for the keys as Adam stressed over what was wrong with my cars fuel pump, etc. Adam found them slid under the rug in the front room, and what do you know? The original key started the car on the first try... go figure... maybe I should find a safer place for those keys.