Sunny Day Sunday

Well, it seems there is no nose picking advice and possibly no end in sight. Charming.

I wasn't going to write about this parenting fail because I am so ashamed of myself, but then I thought, what the hell. Possibly other people also make mistakes? Could that be true?

We went to Earth Day celebration in Forest Park on Sunday. It was lovely. The weather could not have been better. My friend Erin went with us so adults outnumbered kids which made things easier than they might have been. David wore Coco in the Ergo carrier and Zuzu ran around like a nut. She was actually being kind of a pill all day--she really wanted a coin purse and was not satisfied with the hair clips made from swimsuit remnants that I purchased for her. She only wanted to hold hands sometimes and although she made a show of putting on her listening ears (she really does touch each ear, it's super cute), they appeared to be not functioning very well.

Anyway, we walked around the booths and peeked in at the Montessori classroom, and picked up coupons and samples for green cleaning products and essential oils (I'm actually going to a class on essential oils tonight because I'm a crazy hippie). Then we got lunch and I was so happy that my favorite restaurant, Lulu's, had a food truck there.

We sat at a picnic table over looking some water and there were a lot of kids playing in the water and Zuzu wanted to get in on that action (of course) so David took her to walk around over there (she was wearing her rainboots) while I finished lunch. I sat with Coco on my lap and noticed that we were getting a lot of direct sun, so I draped a blanket over her head. A few minutes later, David came walking back over to the table, carrying Zuzu, who was screaming and flailing in his arms.

She'd wanted to get in the water, he said no, she kicked her boot in the water, he had to step in the water to get it, so basically they were both soaking wet and pissed off (for different reasons, obviously).

It was clearly time to leave, so we headed back to the car.

I left David at home with the girls and went to a coffee shop to work on the mountain of essays I have to grade. When I got home, I walked in the kitchen and Coco turned in her high chair to look at me and I gasped. Her face was BRIGHT RED. I asked David if it was a sunburn. David said no, she'd been crying before I walked in, so her face was red from exertion. I wasn't sure, but she didn't feel hot. I smeared lotion on her face before bed and hoped it would be faded in the morning.

The next morning proved him wrong. I almost cried when I saw her sunburned little face peering at me from her crib.

I really try not to judge people on their parenting choices. I know parents who let their kids cry it out love their kids as much as attachment parents do and blah blah blah. Basically, the only parenting choices I will judge are (1) giving pop to your baby and (2) not protecting your kids from the sun.

The thing is, it was 65 degrees out! We were all wearing long sleeves and pants! There was a cool breeze and warm sun. We were walking in and out of the shade. It was the most gorgeous day! And it's only April!

But both the girls got too much sun on their little faces.

Monday morning, I doubled down on moisturizer and sunblock (they loved that) and sent them to school in jackets and sunhats.

I feel absolutely terrible about the sunburns (and embarrassed that all the daycare teachers witnessed the evidence of my neglect). I wanted to be mad at David for not noticing all the sun Coco was getting, but I should have thought to put sunscreen and hats on both of them.

Lesson learned!

So... parenting mistakes you've learned from? Can you make me feel better about this? (By Tuesday, the burn had faded and I was able to joke to David last night that I wish I had a golden tan like Coco--but I also bought new sunscreen at Target and loaded up the diaper bag and the basket we keep by the back door.)