Monday, April 02, 2007

how groceries become exciting

friday morning i openend the fridge to get the milk out for my cereal and my heart sank. there was just enough milk for my cereal and that's it. which meant that i would have to haul myself and my son out to the grocery store. this may not sound like a big deal, but tristan likes to be That Kid in the store who wails inconsolably, disturbing everyone within earshot. he refuses to sleep in his carseat, so anytime i need to do errands, i do so at lightning speed before his over-tiredness causes a major outburst. as i was writing out my grocery list, the phone rang and whaddayaknow...it was my sweet mom in law telling me that she was free all day and could she do anything to help me? i gratefully accepted her offer, thrilled not only to be able to do groceries in peace, but to be able to Get Out of the House!!! hooray! not only that, but she gave me her starbucks giftcard to buy myself a coffee as well. i tell you, i took my time down each aisle, sipping my mocha, feeling oh so posh! and when i came home, tristan had been played with, changed and was sleeping soundly in his crib. amazing how an hour doing groceries alone has become such a treat.

that evening, i left tristan home with his daddy and drove off alone yet again, to my friend j'lene's house. she makes amazing jewelry out of gourds and was having a show at her place. i rolled down the windows, cranked the music, and felt free as a bird. 2 hours later i arrived back home only to discover that tristan had cried the ENTIRE time i was gone and had only just fallen asleep. josh wasted no time in making himself a bloody mary as he relayed the evening's events to me. i felt bad for him, i really did, but mostly i was secretly worried that he would think twice before allowing me to go off alone again.

sunday afternoon i went to a baby shower for my previously mentioned friend, j'lene. she is expecting a little girl in may and a cuter pregnant woman you could never find. the whole bowling ball on a stick thing? that is her to a t. anyhow, since josh had such a rough evening on friday, i told him that i'd bring tristan along with me to the shower. the bummer of it all was that i had to wake tristan from his nap just to bring him to church that morning, and as the time to leave for the shower drew near, it looked as if i'd have to wake him up from another nap. i really REALLY hate waking him up early like that. well, my dear husband, sensing my distress told me to leave tristan with him yet again. and so i did and had such a lovely time at the shower, chatting with my friends, eating the delicious cake that zandra and sara had made, watching j'lene open a million cute little pink things. and yet, as the clock ticked on, i felt a growing unease in my stomach. i called to check up on tristan and josh said he was doing great. still, that feeling would not go away. finally i couldn't take it anymore...i left the shower early and drove home, all the while consumed with the feeling of Missing My Baby!

i came in the house, and gave josh hugs and kisses and thank you's. when tristan woke up an hour later, i burst into his room and when he looked up at me with the biggest smile on his face, that feeling completely melted away. we cuddled and played to our hearts content. i felt like i just couldn't get enough of him. i almost felt disappointed when it was time for his next nap! as awesome as it felt to be able to get away alone, it felt even better to come home and be with my baby again.

i was reflecting on this this morning, just amazed that such a great kind of love could be felt for someone so small and, at times, so difficult. people say that the love you have for your children is so powerful, but i really had no idea what that meant until tristan was born. it now makes so much more sense to me why God calls us His children. the kind of unconditional love i feel for my son has nothing on the perfect love our Heavenly Father has for us. that just blows my mind.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I so can relate to the whole grocery shopping thing. I would just put it off as long as I possibly could because I didn't want to bring my babies and mess up the schedule. Now our kids are a bit older and I don't really like shopping on my own. I feel lonely and I end up begging one of them to come along. Then I end up buying that one a treat so that they will want to come along next time too. Have fun with your baby.

L&D said...

Yes, being a parent paints a beautiful picture of the reality of God's unconditional love for us. I too, had that same paradigm shift when I had the little boy. Isn't it amazing? Isn't it wondrous to feel that sort of love? It's as if God allowed our heart to grow larger as soon as our boys took their first breath.

Jennifer said...

and some of us had it the other way around...having our kids first and then learning that God loves us like that,only better. Curiously validating n'est pas.

Sarah said...

Boy, does the grocery thing bring back so many memories. i still hate shopping with my kids and avoid it at all costs. One time my oldest daughter threw the biggest fit in Walmart, that I had to leave my cart full of stuff and walk out. It was so embarrassing!! As for leaving your hubby home alone with Tristan, don't worry to much, they need that time together to bond, and now he has a better understanding of what you do all day. Sometimes I wonder is my hubby really knows how hard it can be, but when he is alone all day with them, he realizes it's not always a picnic, and thanks me for being such a great mom, which always feels good to hear.

Lovella ♥ said...

my mom always said that by the time you are a grandma you won't remember the pain of childbirth, she never said that about crying babies in a grocery store, . . .for good reason.

I just warmed my heart to hear how sweet your mom-in-law and hubby are to you.

I'm so glad, you have such love in your home.

Anonymous said...

i am stoked to get out grocery shopping with one...if i have everyone my 5 minute run in turns to 30 because everyone has to go to the bathroom (at different times) and i have to take them...or i look like the mean mom who won't take them potty, even though they just went 10 minutes ago at home!
and oh my gosh the love thing is so true. when shae popped out i couldn't believe how much and how differently i loved him. i always think about how much God must love us.