Andrew has had a cold with an annoying cough and a low-grade fever since last Saturday night. Today he stayed home from school again, and since I had a doctor appointment in a town about an hour's drive away, he was my travel companion.
I love that my 10 year old still likes to be with me. Tonight when I tucked him in, he said something about how much he loved to "travel" with me. Maybe God sent him this little cold because He knew Andrew needed some "mommy time" today.
The drive there was amusing because Andrew has an old Garfield comic book that we found at a Goodwill (I always liked Garfield - maybe because I can relate to him??!), and it started out with Andrew reading the book and occasionally saying, "Mom, listen to this..." and reading me a comic strip. Then, "Mom, this is funny!" and reading me another comic strip. Finally, he was just reading everything to me (and describing the scenario to me if I didn't get it since I couldn't see the pictures). I love hearing him laugh and read and be carefree.
After my appointment, Andrew and I went to Target - and then to lunch. Andrew saw Outback Steakhouse and immediately started talking about how he'd NEVER in all his life (all his 10 years on the planet!) been to one. And you know what??! Just now at this very minute, I remembered that he actually HAD been to one - way back when we lived in Virginia, we took my cousin Siegrid to one while she was visiting us from Germany! I also remember that Andrew, who was about 2 1/2 years old at the time, had to be taken out to the car by daddy "for a talk" (and Daddy's talks usually don't involve many words)....hmmmmmmmmm, no wonder he doesn't remember that! But anyway: Outback was closed for lunch, so I took my son to Applebee's and bought him a small steak :) I had a bowl of broccoli cheese soup - and I hate to say this but it was even BETTER than Panera's!! Cheesier, big pieces of broccoli in it, creamier...
Then we hit Marshalls and Walgreens - which may not sound exciting to many - but to us who live in the middle of no where, it was just plain good times! We also went to Pet Smart - and I realized that my attention span is even shorter than a 10 year olds when it comes to looking at animals. I mean, they are cute and all, but enough already.
On the ride home we just listened to some music. One CD was from the choir at the Bible college & seminary that my parents' church has. Andrew was kind of reading again - but for the first song, he stopped reading and got a really serious look on his face. He listened to the whole song, and since it was a metaphoric song called "The Midnight Cry", I was ready for a serious conversation to follow about its meaning; in fact, I was kind of getting emotional that my son might actually be mulling over the powerful words of the song - and I could have this discussion with him about what it all meant to us as Christians. So, when the last note of the song faded out, I turned off the CD and looked over at Andrew, who was still pretty silent, looking pensive. And then he says, "Wow, Mom, that song was just kind of ... SCAREY", and he went back to reading. I let the teaching moment go...he's just not ready for a theological discussion on what is meant by The Midnight Cry. Probably his senses were dulled by reading too many Garfield comics. :)
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