Because Sometimes Once Just Isn’t Enough

What do you do with a two-year-old who takes delight in chaos? My wife already blogged about The Snow Incident.

But evidently once just wasn't enough! Act II of The Snow Incident happened Sunday, just before our whole family was to meet with the bishop for recommends to attend the Draper Temple dedication. Yes, baby powder was everywhere. I vacuumed, hoping that would do a good enough job. It helped, but there was still a fine layer of powder on the pergo floor, which made it extra slippery. Fun, but he already broke his leg once. So I mopped it as well. And wiped it off of the furniture and bedding and. . . well, just about everything. It took me well over an hour to clean. On the bright side, I don't think his room has been that clean since we moved in.

The baby powder is no longer located in Jack-Jack's room.

Oh, but he's crafty. Yesterday he found the itch cream and squeezed it out of the tube onto his diapers. Naturally it didn’t stay there. It got all over the floor and his furniture, and all over him, too.

The itch cream is no longer located in Jack-Jack’s room, either.

Nor is the Aquaphor, nor anything else that could be shaken or squeezed within his room.

I suppose one solution is to give up on nap time. But that means my wife will also have to give up nap time. Not happening. Another solution is duct tape, but that seems a little extreme.

So I ask you, what do you do with a two-year-old who thrives on creating chaos?

Sometimes They Just Can’t Pay You Enough

Two weeks ago I was assigned a round trip from Atlanta to Oklahoma City and back. It would be the last Delta Connection flight into Oklahoma City and the first one out the next morning, which translated to a five-and-a-half-hour layover. Officially these kinds of trips are called “continuous duty overnights” because we are on-duty the entire time, even when at the hotel. For obvious reasons, their vernacular name is “naps.”

The weather along the route was forecast to contain occasional thunderstorms, but we were able to past them. It was not until we neared Oklahoma City that we found another thunderstorm—with tops at 60,000 feet, spitting hail and 45-knot wind shear at the surface. We were not about to tangle with that. Having insufficient fuel to enter a holding pattern and wait it out, we elected instead to land at nearby Tulsa. There we waited, as did the passengers. Adding to the misery, the FBI and TSA were conducting a practice in the airport and so the passengers were barred from going inside. Only after we were there for an hour and a half did the airport authorities finally cordon off an area inside where the passengers could go. I have to give them credit for being very patient and understanding. Only one man said a word at all, and he elected to rent a car and drive to his destination.

Finally after three hours the coast was clear. In just thirty minutes we were at the gate in Oklahoma City, relieved and exhausted. We would only be there for two hours before departing again for our return flight to Atlanta. We could have stayed on the plane and tried to sleep there, or go to the hotel the company had already arranged and get less but better sleep. We chose the latter. I managed to get an hour-and-a-half that night, and then we were on our way back to the airport.

The return flight went smoothly. No further complications, and in spite of nearly no sleep, I was awake and alert. Thank goodness. Once back in Atlanta I was released to my off days, so instead of going back to my “crash-pad” apartment to, what else, crash, I got on the first flight back to Salt Lake City and slept rather soundly once airborne.

In the end everything worked out, but it was a rough trip. Maybe it was destined to be so. After all, the date was Friday the 13th.