Date Night

Tonight O and I went on a date. O is the "Jan" of the family and, I'm sorry to say, gets neglected from time to time. His is a mild temperament, so it's not hard to get him to concede to the stronger-willed brothers and give up doing exactly what he wants. I often think I should spend some more one-on-one time with him, and tonight I finally did it.
Before we went, he laid out the plan: Dinner, go get a book for daddy. Find a store to buy toys for S, H, and himself. Get me whatever I would like. How do you argue with such thoughtfulness? We went to the restaurant he requested. He ate half of his dinner and half of mine. I couldn't blame him -- both were very yummy. After dinner we bought J a book. I thought that I would like a book too, and O agreed that would be fine. Then we headed for the dollar store. Thank heaven for the dollar store! We spent a happy 20 minutes there contemplating toys all the boys would enjoy. So fun. Then ice cream and home. Sleepy and feeling loved, he went to bed phenomenally well. And tonight must be a blue moon, because I'll go to bed thinking I'm not such a bad mom after all.

(He only ate another inch of it before he pronounced himself done and threw it away. Still totally worth $1.07)