Needed Time

I had ignored my tire pressure warning light for too long. After viewing an almost flat tire before driving Cameron to his 20 minute Kindergarten evaluation, I decided to go ahead and take my van to some tire place to hopefully have the thing repaired. I didn’t want to get stuck with a blowout with 3 kids in the car.

So at 10:30 AM, Cameron and I were standing in Tires Plus, listening to some guy tell us that they wouldn’t be able to get to it until around 2PM (which actually turned out to be around 3PM).

Thankfully, we were right across the street from a very large strip mall shopping center. So in the five hours that passed before the tire was finally fixed, we went to Kid’s Hair to make an appointment, Old Navy for some clothes shopping, Dick’s Sporting Goods to climb the Climbing Wall (which was closed), back to Kid’s Hair for a cut, over to Champs for a sit-down lunch with smoothies, across to Lens Crafters to get my glasses adjusted, down to JC Penny’s to look for gym shoes and more clothes for Cameron, in the middle to Carter’s and Gymboree to check out the baby clothes, into Rocco’s to make a hair appointment, over to Pier One to just browse, into PetsMart to enjoy the animals and waste more time, around to Border’s to purchase a few books, and back to Tires Plus, where we still waited for another 20 minutes before they finished, during which time Cameron sat on my lap and read Hop on Pop to me. (The guys at the tire place tried to tell me my tires were so worn down that they were a millimeter from the legal limit, and I really should get them all replaced….um, I’ll pass, and get a 2nd opinion on that one).

The day was exhausting, but also so wonderful. I haven’t spent this much alone time with Cameron since before Max was born. And boy did we need it. It was so nice to just enjoy his company without having to spend most of my time attending to the other two who demand most of my attention. Unfortunately Cameron usually gets the raw deal with my impatience, because well, he’s 5 and “should know better,” when in reality, most of the time, it's not really him that I'm mad at.

So today, we just walked, talked, held hands, bought some school clothes, and hung out. It was not at all what I had planned to do today….just so much better…the perfect day to spend together before he begins Kindergarten on Friday.

Today is probably the only time I’ll say, “Thank the Lord for flat tires.”