Blossom Wherever: Our "Date"

When we moved out here, we knew we were giving up some things we loved. For example, Mexican food that tastes like Mexican food, hanging out with a bunch of crazy college kids on Tuesday nights, and great babysitters.

There were other things we didn’t realize we were giving up, like fresh jalapenos at the ready in every grocery store, drive through everything (like cleaners, Starbucks and pharmacies) and sleep.

We have an 11-month old, so the occasional sleepless night and sacrificed date night is expected. We are aware of that and don’t complain. We never took for granted that we had scores of willing grandmothers, neighbors, coworkers, friends and college kids who really wanted to hang out with our little buddy for a few hours so we could have dinner and a movie when we got well and ready. However, we didn’t anticipate that moving to Virginia would launch poor little Isaiah into a series of viruses that have kept all of us from sleeping for two months. That’s ok….he’s going to be fine. But it’s time for a date.

Last night in lieu of a just-the-two-of-us night out, we opted for a just-the-family night out. We walked to Subway – I love that people don’t look at you funny for walking to dinner around here – and stopped on the way back for a movie.

We’ve been wanting to see this movie for ages. We’ve actually rented it twice and haven’t watched it yet.

So we were thrilled when Isaiah was asleep at 8:30.

Plugged in the movie, curled up on the couch and….screeeeeeech!

At 9:30 we were still hoping we could watch the movie.

At 10:00 we had settled for half.

At 11:00 we gave up.

At 11:30, Isaiah sat bolt upright in my arms and squealed with delight, the first happy noise we’d heard in hours.

He pointed at the window.

He wants to go outside, I thought. Of course he does. He’s awake now and he wants to play outside.

But we don’t normally exit through second-floor windows, so how did he know that was a way out?

Now he was having a conversation with the window. Or was he…?

Isaiah has a heater. It’s been “his” heater since we brought him home from the hospital. I’m not sure where it came from, but it long predates our marriage. It’s kind of funny looking, but it still looks like a heater to me. Turns out, it also works as a fan. And it was in the window happily circulating cool air through the room while Isaiah threw his “I will not sleep” fit.

I looked at him, pointing his finger up. I looked at the fan. Him. The fan. Him. The fan.

By this time he is scaling the back of the rocking chair to reach it. He wants the fan.

Isaiah is currently obsessed with wheels but he has no way of knowing there is a “wheel” inside the fan. I tried to look at it from his point of view. Here’s what I saw.

He thinks it’s an animal. It has ears and a pretty bright orange eye. It makes a happy humming noise. It’s his friend.

Oh. My. Word.

After three hours of screaming, he wants the fan? We turned it off and pulled it out of the window. Not since Mr. Bee has Isaiah been so happy to meet a new friend.