A Date with the Husband

Mom is visiting!

So yesterday Tom and I were able to go on our date.

I was worried on how Natalie would be considering that she tends to flip out if I leave the room.

Tom and I went to Coldstone for dessert.

I got a waffle bowl of course. I think it amuses the workers that I always ask for a chocolate dipped waffle bowl with SPRINKLES.

Yes, I am 25 and I still love sprinkles. The colored ones.

I got the flavor called Our Strawberry Blond. I believe it was strawberry ice cream, graham cracker bits, strawberry chunks, fudge and caramel.

It was delicious.

I got the smallest scoop--the like it.

Tom got the love it.

Which makes NO sense because he never finishes it all. I wonder if he gets the bigger size because he thinks it's not macho to order the small size? I've no idea but it irks me because he NEVER finishes all his ice cream. I'm all, "You know, you CAN get the like it, you don't have to get the LOVE it.." But he's all, "I'd rather have too much than too little." The problem is he almost always gets too much of something and lets the rest go to waste.

(I'd have eaten it but after eating all my ice cream and most of my bowl I was full.)

It also irks me that when I try to have a conversation I get either grunts or a one word answer.

Hello man, we're out ALONE. With no kids vying for our attention. Let's talk! Let's have an ADULT conversation and marvel over the fact that we don't have to bring up Cookie Monster or talk in an irritating high pitched voice to keep the baby from crying.

I kept trying to start a conversation.

I think I asked how work was going.

"Good," he answered.

Um.

"How is it good?" I pressed.

A shrug. "It just is."

I felt like I was talking to a teenager, honestly.

Those used to be my responses when Mom asked how school was.

"Fine," I'd reply, itching to get away so I could go chat.

"Explain it to me," Mom would say.

"It was VERY fine," I'd say thinking I was the shit for coming up with such a witty response.

I expect that from teenagers. They can be a surly bunch.

But I expect actual sentences from my life partner for goodness sakes!

"Isn't this ice cream delicious?" I raved. "I love when you can eat your own bowl. That's so exciting to me!"

Tom cocked an eyebrow at me. Probably thinking, I'm here with my adult wife who is raving about an edible bowl.

"How is your ice cream?" I asked, gesturing to his bowl.

"Good," came the one worded response.

Have we run out of things to say or what?

Sometimes he can be incredibly chatty.

But apparently he wasn't at all in Coldstone.

After we ate--I ended up having a one sided conversation chattering on about different things--we headed off to Target to get Tommy's last birthday present.

It was a Jungle Book set as he's been loving the movie lately.

Tom found a DVD that he wanted--something called Snatch which did not look good at all.

Then he started opening his mouth. "Oh it's an excellent movie, so much crap goes on and.."

He prattled on for like five minutes.

But heaven forbid if he talks to me about his WORK.

I did find the book I wanted. I picked it up off the shelf, hugged it to my chest and proclaimed it to be mine.

I love books.

Then we checked out and Tom announced that he wanted a pretzel from the mall.

"How?" I asked. "I'm stuffed from the ice cream and most of my bowl."

"Ice cream never fills me up," was his response.

It would had he FINISHED it all.

So off to the mall we went.

When we got out of the truck at the mall Tom actually did something romantic.

He took hold of my hand.

"You girls love holding hands, don't you?" he asked.

"I do. When you have kids you're holding THEIR hands. It's nice to hold your partners," I said.

Of course we passed by Gymboree.

And I swear, I wasn't going to go in.

But Tom, TOM was all, "Don't you want to go in?"

"I better not," I said. "The store is evil and I have a problem."

"Oh go in. You know you want to," Tom challenged.

Seriously, I wonder if he's testing me sometimes.

Obviously I failed because I flounced right in the store with Tom at my heels. He was either thinking, "Holy hell that backfired! My wallet!" or, "Finally. Geez. What's her problem?"

I found an outfit I wanted.

Plus some shoes that I had been looking for in the clearance bin. I happily dug through it and went, "I FOUND them in her size!" I held them up like a trophy or like that 80s movie with Molly Ringwald when that boy holds up the panties--and Tom just shook his head at me.

I spent $39, which is a record for me in Gymboree.

Then the worker was all," Did you want a Gymbuck? If so you need to spend this much more.." and showed me the chart.

NO.

"Um," I said weakly. I tossed a look to Tom. Come on Tom, tell me NO. Tell me Natalie has ENOUGH. TELL ME, TELL ME!

"Get what you want," was his response.

He's really lucky that I don't take advantage of that. Luckily I have some willpower so I weakly told the worker that I didn't need anything else. Even though my brain was all, "A GYMBUCK. You could use another GYMBUCK. Get the GYMBUCK! You only have ONE. You need another one, right.."

Nooo brain! Piss off!

After I paid I hightailed it out of there so I wouldn't change my mind.

We went home after that.

We were only gone for about an hour.

When we stepped inside I didn't hear crying so I took that as a good sign.

Natalie was on the floor playing with her toys with Mom beside her. When she saw me she immediately burst into tears and lifted her arms up.

For shame you bad woman! How dare you leave me!

I scooped her up and asked Mom how she was.

"She cried at first," Mom admitted. "But I walked her around the house and she fell asleep. She would look at me and squish her eyes shut as though wishing me away. Finally I guess she figured if she fell asleep that I'd go away. But I didn't let her sleep for more than a half hour. I woke her up, she got upset but then I gave her a bath and she was happy again. Then we came down here and she didn't cry much."

Ahh good.

An exciting thing that happened though was that Natalie pointed to the ceiling fan. She had never pointed before so we were all excited.

"She pointed! She pointed!" we were all saying.

Yes, when you have a baby, little things like that matter.

Mom noticed that I bought clothes and went, "Amber, I do believe you have a problem. Natalie's closet is stuffed with clothes folded on the bottom!"

Er..

I guess she hasn't seen the two drawers stuffed with clothes too.

Granted she can't fit into them ALL now. They're a mixture of sizes.

Today Tom and I are going on another date today since he works Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

We're going to see a movie.

I'll write more on that tomorrow.

I'm thrilled because I love movie theatre popcorn. Dripping with butter. It always baffles me when people ask for NO butter. Then the popcorn tastes like salted stryofoam!

Must have butter!