Last Wednesday, Mr Wonderful had the day off and we ran to Home Depot at lunchtime and bought a shed. A huge 7 foot by 7 foot shed. And then we had to rent a truck to bring it home, and then we had to unload it off of the truck in pieces, put said pieces in the garage, and then take the truck back. All on my lunch hour (which ran way, way over that day, obviously). On the bright side, I got a letter from Rugrat that day. It read (spelling and grammatical errors unchanged):
Dere momthor
I'm Having fun at canp. I wish you Cod Be her I DeD the cooLest thening in the wold! I went on A caBoL SLieD!!! Yes I now you shoct and omazD Your BroBoBLy JeLos. I hop you can ret Back to me
Love Ryan
Friday, I took the day off of work and drove down to pick up Rugrat at summer camp. Turns out my worrying was all in vain; he had a fabulous time! Of course he didn't eat much -- the counselor told me that he was the pickiest eater he'd ever seen. Heh. That's my boy! Anyhoo, after I picked him up, we went to a nearby park and met with my friend L and her daughter, S, who is about six months younger than Rugrat. We were only able to visit for about a half hour, because S had a piano lesson, but it was nice to catch up a little bit and get to see them. On our way home, we stopped off again, at Babydaddy's house, so Rugrat could say hi and we could have a little pitstop. After four-plus hours of driving that day, I was ready for a break. We had a little snack, then filled up the car with gas on our way back out to the freeway. We collapsed into bed a bit early that night as we were both exhausted.
Saturday, Mr Wonderful and Tomboy came over around noon, and Mr Wonderful set to work putting together the shed. I had the easier (and air-conditioned) job of watching out for the kids and making dinner. They spent the night, with Mr Wonderful staying in the guest room with Tomboy so that she wouldn't feel scared if she woke up in a strange place in the middle of the night. And the next morning, we had a big breakfast (with Mr Wonderful running off to the grocery store for buttermilk -- and bringing back flowers, of course) and then we went to the water park for a few hours. The kids ran off some steam, Rugrat practiced treading water, swimming, and floating (he REALLY needs to take swimming lessons), and Mr Wonderful and I mostly vegged out on the lounge chairs in the shade.
After the water park, we went to Schooner's for a late lunch and then to the movies to see Underdog. Ugh, I know, but it was the one movie the kids could agree on, so that was what we saw. We headed back home, I had a bit of a nap and Mr Wonderful and Tomboy decided to go back to the water park for a little bit. Rugrat played on the computer and watched a little TV while I dozed. Eventually I got up and made dinner for the kids (Mr Wonderful and I were not hungry after our big lunch), and we had a little issue with the dessert after dinner. It wasn't anything major, but I felt like I was put in the position of being the bad guy to Tomboy, and I thought it was too soon for me to be playing that role with her. So later that night, after Mr Wonderful had taken her back to her mom's, and Rugrat was in bed, we talked it over. And it just reinforced for me how incredible it is to have a partner, someone who is willing and even eager to talk about disagreements rather than running away from confrontation. We came to a consensus about dinner/dessert rules, and both of us felt that our bond was even stronger afterwards.
This is nothing like the screaming fights I had with boyfriends when I was younger. This was two adults, talking about our different parenting styles and making compromises to benefit our family as a whole. God, it just feels so different: mature and logical and loving. With every hurdle that we tackle together, we just fall more in love, because it feels like a real partnership. It feels like we're building a family here, and even when things are exhausting and stressful and busy as hell, I'm still happier than I've ever been.
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