Tornado Season and the Naked baby

Katie- “Mommy, I know what comes after July.”

Me, fully anticipating her saying August- “What?”

Katie- “Halloween!”



The girls enjoyed the holiday weekend. Well, except for Friday night when the tornado sirens went off. The last time the sirens went off it was last year and a tornado hit a small town not too far from Pleasantville. When the sirens go off, we take it seriously and head for the basement. Last year C. was asleep when they went off and William and I grabbed the girls and headed for the basement. He woke up a little later, a little put out that no one thought to wake him.

This time C. was awake and I sent Claire and Katie down first while I prepared a cup of milk for Marin. C. ran upstairs and was in the basement with Marin pretty quickly. He had scooped her out of her crib along with her quilt. Unfortunately she was missing her pants. As you all know, since I have been known to complain about it in the past, Marin likes to remove her pants and toss them over the side of the crib. So poor Marin was awakened to find herself half naked in our creepy, horror movie set basement. I have never seen her so scared. Marin was shaking so bad that I thought she was going to literally pass out.

Claire was crying as well. Marin was still the biggest concern because she was a baby version of hysterical. I covered her with her quilt and tried to reassure her but it wasn’t helping. She wouldn’t even take her cup, which is really unusual. She alternated between wanting Mommy, then Daddy and back again. I realized that we were playing a type of baby roulette what with all the passing back and forth of the naked baby. Then the moment came while her dad was holding her. She peed everywhere. Claire, Katie and I all cracked up laughing. We were laughing so hard that even Marin laughed. That was the high point of our unplanned trip to the basement.

The rest of the weekend wasn’t as exciting, fortunately.