On the nose

These days, it's pretty easy to take both girls with me on most of my errands. Yesterday, I had to take a book and a DVD back to the little library branch by our house, so I took both girls in tow. Jellybean has become a reliable helper to do little jobs for me and assist me. As we were going to the garage, I gave her the library book to carry with her.

I got the girls situated in the car and buckled in. We headed for the library, found a parking spot and I got out of the car to start unbuckling them. That's when I realized I hadn't seen nor heard mention of the library book since we got in the car.

Me: "Where's the book?"

Jellybean: "I put it on the nose."

Me: "What nose?"

Jellybean: "The car's nose."

Me (I couldn't help but think how cute and innocent that was): "Well it's not there now, so we're going to go look for it."

So I re-start the car and re-trace our route. The whole way home I was looking in the street for an abandoned library book. I was a bit worried -- I had better ways in mind to spend the $20 or so to replace that book -- but I wasn't stressed. I couldn't conjure how it could be much farther than our driveway when I backed out to turn around. It was about 4:50 p.m., though, so I wanted to get to our house before people started coming home from work -- and running over the book!

I turned up our street, and I could see the glossy book jacket shimmering in the fading sun. I was relieved as I pointed it out to the girls. Peanut said, "I see book, Mama!" It was down the hill in front of our next-door neighbor's house. I got out and retrieved it, and we were back on our way to the library. Crisis averted.