De-NIED: Part Two

***Update below***

Well, I'm sure you're not surprised to hear that I didn't hear from FlakyMama last night. Nor did I hear from her this morning. I left another message on her answering machine around 9:30am asking her (very cheerfully) to please give me a call.

Lunch came and went, and my neighbor called to invite us to go to the pool. This particular pool would be in FlakyMama's neighborhood, which connects to mine. Since Piglet has spontaneously learned how to crawl, sit himself up, and pull up, guess how he spent his morning nap? Alternately sitting up, trying to crawl, and pulling up on his crib, then getting stuck in the stand position and crying. After no morning nap, I was determined to wear him out so he'd get a good afternoon nap, so off we went to the pool. Pool magic worked. After 90 minutes of Big Fun in the water, Piglet was ready to go. I was changing him into a diaper and clothes when I heard it: the distinct tone of FlakyMama's voice.

"Excuse me! Excuse me! Could you please let us in? We live right down the street, I swear, but we forgot our card!"

Big shocker there. She forgot her card.

I stealthily averted my eyes, hoping she wouldn't recognize me in a bikini and sunglasses. No worries there, she was in her own world. My neighbor let her in, and as she headed back my way, I mouthed, "THAT'S HER!!" We exchanged the classic silent conversation. [Are you kidding?! Dead serious. No way! Way.] We fanned away her trailing fog of perfume and sized her up. She and her big blonde Texas hair were oblivious to all around her. And clearly not ailing in any way. Surely, she must have called me while I was gone, right? Snicker. You know the answer.

I got home to no new messages or emails from FlakyMama. At least now, we've perhaps ruled out the medical condition? I wish Piglet hadn't been on the verge of a meltdown. It would have been big fun just to walk up to her...."Hi! I guess you're not taking your afternoon nap today? Is that just on Tuesdays? Oh, okay...."

Update:

She called at 5:08pm. Oh my gosh! I was soooooo silly. First of all? She had a REALLY BAD sinus headache yesterday - you know the weather? Yeah. And? Her son didn't tell her I even called until this afternoon, can you believe that silly little guy? And? She JUST THEN had heard my message on the machine from this morning. They had a "thing" that they had to be at ALL day long and just got home. Guess she doesn't know I saw her arrive at the pool at 2:45, huh? She is SO sorry and insists on paying me for my time. (Hurray!) Is there any way he can make it up? She feels SO bad. Lucky for her I had a reschedule tomorrow and I'm already tutoring, so I offered to tutor him too. This woman's on a short leash, people! No more Mrs. Nice Pigs!

You might wonder why I am going to tutor him at all, and I will tell you. First of all, I really liked the kid, and I'm really looking forward to working with an older kid in writing. (He's in 7th grade.) It's not his fault his mom's a flake. Secondly, I only took on three kids, which an amount I'm pretty happy with. Two kids doesn't quite seem worth the effort. I think four would be a nice round number, but maybe next year or during the school year. Word of mouth seems to be the way to attract tutorees. So....we'll give it a go. Maybe it'll create good blog fodder. I'll let you know tomorrow...