Day 348: Oy.

Birthday boy with birthday spoils

Someday you may show up at the movie theater without your kid on his birthday.

I'm not saying that you for sure will do this.  I'm just throwing out there that you may do it.

You may have a perfect birthday plan for him that you've been going over and over with him for three days in a row.  You may go over this plan with your husband, and you may blissfully go about your day thinking that everything is going to fall into place perfectly.

You may even be so on top of your game that you find a babysitter for your other two kids so that your middle son can have you and your husband all to himself.  You may drop him off at the church in the afternoon for a play date, promising that his dad will pick him up and that you'll see him at the movie theater - in anticipation of the movie he's been begging to see for weeks.

Once he's safely tucked away at the church with a handful of activities and his most favorite people, you may decide to do some Christmas shopping that you've been putting off.  You may or may not receive cryptic text messages from your husband about the evening plans, and you may or may not be annoyed that he seemingly wasn't listening when you made the plans.

At around 4:00 you may arrive at the movie theater and buy three tickets for Big Hero 6, along with a giant popcorn for all of you to share.  You may eat 1/3 of it while you're waiting for the other two to arrive.

Finally you may see your husband walk up, and when he opens the door to the theater, you ask him where Liam is.  He may look at you with a confused stare, followed by glances around his feet like your son is just hiding underfoot like a cat.

You may panic.
You may start crying.
You may realize that one of you was supposed to pick him up half an hour ago and that it will take at least that to get back to the church.

You may get in the car and with shaky hands, try to find a phone number that will connect you to the adults on the other end.  You may say things like, "I can't believe we forgot our son ON HIS BIRTHDAY!"

Eventually you would probably get there, only to realize that no one is panicked and people have words of grace and stories of their own.  You would probably apologize endlessly.

You may realize once you're back in the car, and headed to another theater that everything is going to be okay.  You would probably decide that another $25 is okay to spend on a movie you already have tickets to, all things considered, but you would definitely chow down on the popcorn in the car to save buying another one.

Your son will probably spend all evening saying things like, "Thank you for letting me stay longer with Mrs. Kim and Mr. Mark.  I got to stay there the LONGEST!"  You may feel like you got away with this one.

Then three days later your son, out of nowhere, may ask you, "Why did you and Dad forget to pick me up on my birthday?"

Today I am thankful for gracious adults that take such good care of my children, especially when I'm not always on top of my game.