Label Your Stuff

Today, sadly, was our last day of MOPS. Only half the people from my planet were there, which was doubly sad, but we had a nice time anyway. I never missed a meeting all year and, looking back, I realize I enjoyed it more than I ever imagined I would! I really feel that MOPS has been an extremely important part of my life and I'm so grateful I was a part of it. I already signed up for next year! (There are events throughout the summer, just not regular meetings.)
Anyway, I could go on and on about what MOPS has meant to me, and probably should sometime, but what this post is really about...is labels.

I left MOPS today feeling all warm and fuzzy about all the people who'd worked so hard to make it possible for us to get together twice a month (and for fun stuff in-between meetings, too!) especially the Moppets workers who keep the kids for every meeting. Aside from Sunday mornings, it's the only time I have a baby sitter. I'm still grateful to them, especially since I'm pretty sure my kid has cried the entire time he was there the past three months so he's not their easiest baby by far. However, today there was an incident.

When I picked Frazier up they informed me that there had been a mix-up with the baby bags. I should interject here that Frazier's bag does not have his name on it permanently anywhere, because I was trying to be practical. If I monogrammed them, they'd be useless beyond when Frazier is a baby. And I'd have to buy new ones for the next kid. However, they usually put a sticker on the bags so everyone knows whose is whose. I don't know what happened, but I do know Frazier had been given a whole jar of someone else's baby food and was wearing a diaper two sizes too small. He'd also eaten Cheerios which I don't give him. Not only that, but Frazier's expensive-special-order snacks were given to someone else.

I tried to let it roll off. I mean, obviously none of that was going to kill him, but I'm OCD enough that it affected me regardless. I know that sounds ridiculous, but it was beyond my control. Kind of like how I can't function when my nails are uneven. I tried to be flippant about it as I left and even managed to say something about how much we'd appreciated them all year. I think part of what bothered me so much was that I'd come really close to taking him a sippy cup of breast milk today, but ended up having time to nurse him before we left. If I had, they'd have given that to someone else!! Or worse, what if someone else had done the same thing, and they'd given that to Frazier! Or given him a whole bottle of formula or juice (which I don't let him have) or whole milk or something he was allergic to! That could have really made him sick. The point is, I packed his bag with stuff I wanted him to have. And if that had been this other person's baby food and Cheerios, that stuff would have been in his bag.

I think I went through all the stages of grief. I'm at acceptance now, but it took me several hours to get here. ;)

If only I had a dollar for every time I've said, "I might have overreacted..." since Frazier was born.

Here is the potential positive that has come out of this situation: I shall be henceforth known as The Queen of Labels. I blame myself for the mix-up...I should have labeled better; that's all there is to it. Believe me when I tell you I had to keep myself from leaving the church parking lot and going straight to the closest place that does monogramming and having every item in the car that belonged to Frazier emblazoned with his moniker. What I did instead, was come straight home and design and print labels in multiple sizes to be used on everything he owns. I even printed some on inkjet window decal paper which works perfect for sippy and snack cups! It can be removed and reused!

So let this be a lesson unto you:

LABEL YOUR STUFF!