As I am taking my two-year-old out of the nursery with his arms around my neck almost choking me to death, I can't help myself but squeeze him back even though I am frustrated with him. It always starts off well. He sits quietly in church with his brothers, but then starts talking in his happy manner and even though mommy and daddy try to shush him, he still has not mastered the art of whispering. Then begins the ritual of nursery visiting. On days that my husband is needed to help in the service, I plop my son in the room with the responsible lady and hear his screams all the way down the hall feeling extremely guilty all the while. Other days, I can't bear to hear the quiet room full of little ones working busily be shattered by the piercing screams of my son being left behind by his mother. So, we go visit together or sit in a deserted playroom so that I can spare everyone from the peaceful scene being destroyed. As I'm sitting in a chair watching my son playing happily since his mommy is with him, my mind goes back to a memory I have of my first day of kindergarten. I was excited that day as my mother walked me to school. I'm sure I held tightly to her hand and chattered the whole way there. When we got to the kindergarten room, I was greeted with something that I hadn't expected. Being a shy girl, I was immediately intimidated by the many children in the room. No way was I going to let my mother leave me there with these strange kids! When I realized that my mother had every intention of leaving me, the peaceful scene was completely shattered by my piercing screams and cries. Things became a blur after that, but my mother told me later that I had grabbed a hold of her leg and refused to let go while the kids were staring at me with their mouths open wondering what in the world was wrong with me. I'm sure she was completely stunned by my behavior and I can imagine she felt horrible on her walk home. As I look at my son playing with some toy cars, I smile because I realize how alike we really are.
Doc and I have actually been tweeking with the idea of going on a date. I know. Totally weird. Not the idea of doing something romantic. It's the idea that we actually might have the guts to dump our offspring on some unsuspecting person. This has always been a hard decision for us to make. I mean, we do watch the news and let's face it, we're paranoid. That's probably why we haven't been on a real date that didn't include scarfing down our food as fast as we can and running back home to see if it's still standing and no one is bleeding. Just the other day, I asked Doc, "So, are we going out for Chinese tonight?" I was crossing my fingers mentally, chewing on my lip. I so wanted to be irresponsible. We haven't been on a date in forever and I was craving Chinese like crazy. I suggested that our 13-year-old son get a chance to hold down the fort for a couple hours. I even turned on my sexy voice and said, "We'll have our cell phone with ...
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