Twilight zone?

Weirdest daycare-related story ever:

Friday is our daycare day and it also just happens to be the busiest day at work for me, so pretty much Fridays are total chaos. Well this past Friday was the most chaotic, weirdest, most stressful one I've had in a long time. Please read on if you care to laugh and be confused simultaneously.

When I dropped Truman off at daycare in the morning, he was asleep in his car seat. I always carry him in to the center in his seat, then take him out and hand him over, then take the car seat back with me so it doesn't clutter up their room. Well 'Miss Linda' saw that T was sleeping soundly and suggested that I just leave him in the seat and they'd put it in back for the day. I thought that was a fab idea since you really don't want to mess with fate and wake a sleeping baby. Ha. Fate had other plans this day anyway.

So I left him, had the world's most stressful day at work, and was the last one in my whole department left a little after 5:00. I was rushing around to get the heck out of there, get Truman, drive home, feed him, and then meet some friends for a pizza date. When I arrived at daycare little T was snoozing in a swing and 'Miss Margaret'--one of my fave teachers---was just chilling with Truman and one other baby. I was gathering up our things and searched around for the car seat but couldn't find it. 'I left Truman in his car seat this morning when I dropped him off, but now I don't see it,' is what I said to Miss Margaret. The look on her face immediately told me we were headed for disaster, then she said, 'Oh no, is it red? I think I sent one of the new babies home in it today with his grandma! I thought it was his....oh no.....' and so on.

No big deal, we could just call the baby's grandma and have her drop it back off to me, right? Well, they didn't have the number for the grandma since she doesn't always pick up the baby and the mom was up at the hospital working as a nurse, and was in surgery with a doc at the moment. Fabulous. How in the heck was I supposed to drive my baby home for the 30 minute commute we had ahead of us? Where was my car seat? And how did this actually happen?

Then my saving grace, aka a mom named Angela, was there picking up her son Noah and she pitied me enough to offer up her car seat to my poor soul. She said she lived 3 miles from the daycare and once she dropped off Noah I could have her car seat to use for the night. I was sort of in shock but this sounded like the best option at the time. It was either that or just camp out at daycare until the nurse-mom called and we figured out where the missing seat was located. So I left Truman at daycare with Miss Margaret, who felt awful by now, but I tried to tell her it was no big deal while I acted totally cool and calm and hip. I hopped in my car and followed Angela home while dialing Nate to inform him that the world was basically ending and our night was totally ruined and OMG CAN YOU BELIEVE THEY SENT A CHILD HOME WITH OUR CAR SEAT?

As I was explaining the situation to Nate, I realized that this was truly hilarious and of course it would happen to me....on the one evening we had plans....after the worst day in history of work. Nate was pretty hot about the whole thing and I found myself a lot more calm by the minute. Thank GOD for Angela. Seriously. We pulled up to her house and she had me hold Noah while she got the seat for me. Luckily it was a Graco and it actually fit in my car seat base! I thanked her profusely and apologized and got all of her info so I could call and drop it back off in the near future. She told me that one year old Noah also has a two year old sister and thus, her life is always this chaotic and it was the opposite of a big deal to be without a car seat all night. Dude. Kids 12 months apart would be like ground hog day, repeating the level of chaos I had on Friday over and over again. No thanks!

So I returned to daycare with the loaner seat and took Truman home after consoling Miss Margaret some more. We made it home in one piece with the strange seat and Truman even discovered Noah's gigantic hanging toy on the handle of the seat and fell in love. Hmmm. I hope the other kid loves our hanging toys as much!

The nurse-mom did call me back when she got out of surgery and was somewhat apologetic but somewhat flustered. She said she never leaves her baby, Collin, in the seat but when her mom picked Collin up, she would have had no way of knowing that wasn't their seat. Which made semi-amounts of sense to me at the time but the more I think about it....where in the heck was THEIR car seat? I mean, when she picked Collin up she had to have a seat in the car waiting for him, right? So when she carried him out to the car in our seat, did she just push the other one aside and figure they must be giving out new seats at daycare or something? And as far as his safety goes, I know she didn't have a base and totally picture her just setting the seat down in the car without any sort of buckle and going home. Yikes dude.

We survived, went to an awesome pizza dinner and then I promptly passed out at 9:15 from sheer exhaustion. On Saturday morning I asked Tony to watch Truman to avoid the musical chair situation with a baby who needs a seat, then I drove back out to Angela's house and dropped off her car seat on the back porch with a thank you note. Girl deserves more than that but it's all I could do at the time. Then I drove back to the hospital and met Collin's mom while she was working to retrieve our seat. She was nice to me and did apologize, but not after saying, 'Yeah, my mom was like "I hope I have the right kid!" when she picked him up.' Um, that is so not cool. It seemed like she was a little annoyed with her mom about the whole thing and for her to even question if Collin was the right baby frightens me. It could have been so much worse, you guys. What if old girl took my babe instead of my car seat? Not okay.

So yes, I spent an hour of my Saturday morning exchanging car seats and had a little bit of a stressful evening. But at least we have a good story out of the deal and you better believe I will label our car seat with the most obnoxious tag ever. I thought of labeling bottles, outfits, and bags but never considered the dang car seat. Lesson learned, my friends. And now I am a more experienced daycare mommy.