Daddy/Sitter

Monday morning. It's all planned out. I will take the boys to school and Nate is going to stay at home with sister girl while I then 'hurry' over to the grocery store and get our weekly shopping done. I promise to be back soon as if I'm paying a sitter and then head out the door.

I drop the kids off with out a hitch, except to yell at a father who actually passed me in the drop off lanes after we had both let our children out of the vehicle. I don't know what kind of hurry Mr. Mom was in that he felt the need to race in front of me while small children were crossing the walkway but hey...I just hope someone wrote his license plate number down!

I then hurry through the store only to be interrupted by sweet husband/babysitter on the phone to ask if I wanted him to wait for me to go on a walk. "Oh no dear...you better go on that walk now!" I thought...good golly I'm trying to shop here for our dinners I'm not having the pressure of a 'walk' sitting on my shoulders. Back to shopping.

I manage to take about 4 minutes out of my focused search down aisle number 7 to talk to the 'special needs bagger' who is roaming around looking for young women to talk to (he always does this). I'm proud of myself for not being rude but talking to him about the high school football game this Friday night and how dark it will be. He will not be going though...in case you wondered.

I then finish my shopping, proud that I stuck to my list exactly, and load my groceries in the van by myself because you know you have to practically be in a wheelchair for someone to help you out at Kroger!

Then I get home with no daddy/sitter and baby in site and unload everything very happily!

Daddy walks in and says he is going to run some errands. I say off the cuff, "why don't you take Elizabeth?"

He says...sure. And then he walks her out to the van and closes the door. If it wasn't for the fact that he forgot something I would have not realized that he was actually leaving with her. Leaving me alone...in the house...by myself...

I quickly turn into over protected/controlling mom and say, "do you have the diaper bag, a cup, a snack, shoes, a blanket?" As he realizes he has NONE OF THE ABOVE and very calmly gets it all. Then he is gone. I can't believe it. He just took our crazy (but cute) almost 2 year old on a shopping/errand run with no complaints what so ever.

The guilt...it enveloped me for about...3 minutes then I jumped up and started cleaning. I actually cleaned my entire ENTIRE entire house while they were gone. I mean from dusting, mopping, vacuuming, scrubbing bathtubs with toothbrushes and toilets with pretty blue stuff! I did it all before they even returned over 2 hours later!

Now don't go and ask me why I didn't do something for myself b/c as most moms know to have a morning free to get all my house cleaning done while I was actually in the mood to get all my house cleaning done and not have a baby interrupting me at all was a wonderful morning indeed!

Then they returned (and best of all daddy/sitter complimented me on how shiny the bathroom was!) and I got to ask him with a kind of one eyebrow up look, "so, how was she?" Expecting him to be exhausted, frustrated, stressed, even angry. But no...he smiled in his usual manner and stated, "She was great. Everyone loved her!"

What??!! I bet he had women coming up to him in the stores just asking if they could hold her while he shopped!

They even went to Wal-mart of all places and she sat in the buggy! Then they went to Men's Wearhouse and he tried on his suit pants for tailoring. "What did she do?" (thinking she probably ran around the store) "She just sat on the floor with me in the dressing room." He went to MTSU to work to get something as well as "The Game Stop" to ask for information about us reselling a game unit. "And she just behaved herself and stayed with you?" I pleaded. "Yes, she did great!"

So.

I'm proud of my sweet husband for stepping up and taking his daughter shopping everywhere that morning but I just can't help but be a little jealous and curious as to how he did it!

Am I going to follow his lead in the future and take her shopping all over Tim Buck Two? I DON'T THINK SO! I know she is just holding it back for her momma! The clever little cuttie pie is scheming right now as she lays in her crib!