an afternoon date

This afternoon, I had to take JW out shoe shopping.  Normally, I despise shopping for shoes, but today I found out that it isn't bad if you only have one kid with you while you shop.  We started at Payless and I was happy to find a pair that we both liked and in his size.  Even better, they were less than 20 bucks! 

I guess our shoe-shopping-success put me in a good mood.  Even before we got to the shoe store, JW had already told me he was hungry.  I wasn't surprised.  So, when we finished buying his shoes I asked where he wanted to get some lunch.  We discussed a couple of fast food places before he settled on Wendy's ~ I would have picked Arby's, but I promised to let him choose and he wanted to go somewhere where the kids' meals come with a toy, not just a cookie!

I must admit, that the idea of this had crossed my mind earlier in the day.  I don't remember very many times that JW and I have been anywhere together without any other kids, and I am pretty sure that we have never gone to a restaraunt alone.

Once we got there and got our food, I noticed that JW was smiling at me in an unusual way.  All he said was that his cheeseburger was good, but I could tell that he was feeling special and it made the whole day a little more special for me.  There were no deep conversations and no grand discoveries about this middle child of mine.  Just a relaxed afternoon during which he didn't have to compete with a bossy big sister and a very busy 4 year old for attention. 

All afternoon, I tried very hard to overlook his fidgeting and enjoy his quirkiness.  I didn't complain when he drummed his fingers and banged his feet the entire time we were eating.  Those of you who have met my child might be able to appreciate better how much restraint that took!  I let him "drive" the buggy in Sam's and Walmart.  He loved it and I am happy to say that there were no casualties ... a few close calls maybe, but no damage.  I did draw the line at taking him to the Bass Pro Shops.  He's just going to have to wait on his Daddy for that trip.

He decided, somewhere around the end of the cheeseburger, that we should repeat this on the second Saturday of every year, but I think we might try to do it a little more often than once a year.  As a matter of fact, maybe this needs to be an event we put on the calendar so that we can both look forward to it.