A Special Treat for All

Like I mentioned in an earlier post, my dear son has been admitted to the toddler club. And that includes the fight to get him to eat his supper. Now, my son likes the food - he'll even eat green vegetables, but at the dinner table he is so highly amused by the sounds his fork can make banging on things and the way his food squishes between his fingers that he seems to forget about the eating part. So, hubby decided to offer him a "special treat" if he finished his food tonight.

Let me for a moment step aside from this story to tell you about "Special Treat." About a week ago, my husband had Michael for the night while I was at Bible study and decided to take him out for a "special treat." This was to split a piece of cheesecake at Barnes and Noble and let Michael play with the train set there. Michael thought this was the best! And everyday - well closer to every couple of hours, he has asked for a special treat - every time we got in the car, when he woke up each morning, at every meal, when Daddy came home from work - you get the picture. Of course, the logic that a special treat is no longer special if comes every day just falls flat with a toddler - trust me I tried.

So anyway, hubby and son go off tonight to have their "special treat" leaving me for my own "special treat" time at home. So what did I do you ask? Maybe I could draw a nice bubble bath and soak away the cares of the day. Maybe I could call up a couple girl friends and go out for coffee to chat about the latest happenings. Maybe I could light some candles and curl up with a good book to get lost in its pages! Well, actually I watched an episode of Frasier - lame isn't it?!

Why did I select that particular activity? Because all the further I got was the couch. Mind you it was 6:30pm. My day started at 6:30 am with a shower and devotions. Then by 7:30 I had not only my son to watch but two others that I do daycare for. So the next few hours were full of running a three year old to the bathroom, saying "It's so and so's turn now," making pancakes, singing Old MacDonald, pushing around tricycles, and trying to come up with creative ways to use old toys to keep them entertained. Now, don't let me fool you, I did let them watch Sesame Street so there was a bit on selfish me time in there too! :) And then came "lunch break" - making sandwiches, cutting up bananas, feeding the baby a bottle, cleaning up with the washcloth over and over, and oh yah - eating a piece of toast and banana myself. Don't get me wrong, I love my job at home with my son - I am embellishing it a bit for this story here. I wouldn't change being a stay at home mom for a day at the office for anything (ok, maybe a day now and again, but not usually lol). Anyway, after fixing dinner and doing airplane to feed a two year old, I was pooped! So I got to the couch and made it no further.

Luckily the half hour "special treat" trip turned out to last longer so after the TV show I was able to dust the second floor, and vacuum the whole house! How much of an accomplishment was that?! My question though, is how come a "special treat" for a child is dessert out and 45 minutes with a favorite toy, and a "special treat" for a mom is to be able to vacuum the stairs without a toddler hanging on her leg? LOL

Wow - if you made it through that whole thing congratulations! Let me leave by telling you that I absolutely love being a Mom - and in a strange way this evening was a "special treat" for me. So leave me a comment and let me know what is a "special treat" for you? I can't wait to read what you have to say! :) :)