Things

August 10, 2018

When I was growing up my dad implemented "things" and I have carried on the tradition in our home.  Basically it's one on one time for me and each kiddo.  One of my favorite "things" growing up was going to the skating rink with my dad.  We would hold hands and skate around the rink and finish up with a treat.  When my kids were really young we would have "Mom and kid time" almost everyday for about 10 min each.  We would head to a separate room and play a game or read a book together.  When the kids were a little older and Brian was home I would rotate Saturdays and take a child to ride bikes or go feed the ducks.  Now that we are in the teen stage our things mostly consist of going out to eat together and sometimes running an errand or two.  It's a fun treat for us to have some one on one time and enjoy going out to eat as well.

Today was Tanner's "thing" and he chose to eat at (gag) Chick Fil A.  It's so funny because he is just Tanner and we had to do a lot of negotiating throughout the date.  We went into Chic at first and the line was super long and so we decided to go through the drive thru.  We waited 20 minutes and so we played the question game.  Tanner declared many of my questions illegal and he also tried to trick me into answering first every time.  We asked questions like "what business would you want to start?" (me: craft business for ETSY?  Tan: oil field business since it is booming.) What is your favorite dessert?" (me: chocolate chip cookies.  Tanner: eclair dessert.)  Dream car? (me: I'm driving it...mini-van baby.  He made me pick something else.  I said a really nice truck.  Sorry--I have no idea exactly what brand etc that would be. Tan: a red Stingray Corvette.)  I personally liked this question but he called it illegal: "Who do you have a crush on?"  (me: Brian.  Tan: no one...so I started mentioning some girls and church and some of Aubrey's friends.  He emphatically stated how annoying each one was....it was worth a try!)

While we were in the drive thru I asked were we should eat our food.  He wanted to eat in the car.  I didn't feel that was a very fun date so I mentioned the duck pond.  He mentioned home.  I mentioned a park.  He mentioned he wanted a large vanilla shake with his order and I countered with a small IF we went to the duck pond.  Twenty two dollars and twenty minutes later we had worked out a deal and we headed to the duck pond.  The day was overcast and cool and even though Tanner made comments about the annoying ducks I'm pretty sure he had a good time.   I know I did.