flashback? flashforward?

In December, 2003, while I was pregnant with The Boy, my husband and I signed all the paperwork and contracted to build a new house in a town about 40 minutes from where we were living at the time. We had done all the proper research on the new town: school districts, demographics, park district, taxes, etc... but we weren't very familiar with the town itself. The new house was slated to be ready in August 2004.

That spring and early summer, when we needed to get out of the old house so our realtor could have open houses or what-have-you, we very often drove to the new town. We checked on the progress being made on the construction of our new home, and we explored our new downtown area. The Babe was about 2.5 years old, and The Boy was about 2-5 months old.

Many, many, many times as we explored the downtown, The Boy would need to eat. I had found a little breezeway between two buildings that acted as a pathway between a parking lot and the main shopping section. This breezeway had a nice bench, was shaded from the sun, and was not very widely used. I sat there so many times nursing The Boy on countless different trips.

Flashforward 3 years. The Boy and I are downtown having a date today, just the two of us at the Starbucks while The Babe is in a class. We are just killing time until it is time to go pick her up. As we're sitting, bored, in the Starbucks, The Boy announces he wants to go sit outside. I say OK, there are benches just at the corner. We get to those benches, and they're right in the sun. It's super hot today and I was not interested in that. And then I had the lightbulb moment... and I took The Boy to our little breezeway bench in the shade.

He was tired. He laid on the bench with his head in my lap, sucking his thumb and clinging to his babies. I wished we had thought of it sooner, as we only had a few minutes to sit before we had to go for The Babe.

It was nice to sit there with him. It's kind of sweet that we have a little place of our own, our quiet little spot, right in the middle of the downtown shopping hustle. I know The Boy doesn't remember all the other times we've sat there, just the two of us, but I'll never be able to walk past it without feeling all mushy inside ever again.