...So are the days of our lives...

Sunday morning, I armed myself with a Venti Starbucks and The Other Boleyn Girl at 9am, and we were off to the playground. I knew that it would not be packed, as it was prime church time, (yet another good reason to be committing a mortal sin every Sunday) so was excited to get a little reading in while H played. The day could not have been more beautiful...or so I thought. I pulled into the parking lot and noted that we had the place to ourselves.

This was exciting until about a half-hour later when Ward and June Cleaver showed up with little Timmy and got in the sandbox with him. Never before had I been glad that I'm so hugely pregnant, because then I felt like I at least had a reason to have my ass parked on the bench about 50 yards away from my kid who was happily playing in solitude. As soon as they sat down, however, H was immediately drawn to their similar-aged child, and acted as though he'd been starved for attention. I grudgingly put down my coffee, book and purse and ambled over to the sandbox.

H could not have cared less that I hadn't been playing with him, but I could not stand the thought that they would think he did, or that they would see me as an uncaring, inadequate parent. I realized that the downside of being the only people at the playground, is that when just one other person comes, you are the focus of the attention, instead of being able to sit on the bench and down a coffee in relative ambiguity. Also, it's usually just moms at the park, socializing with one another, but the Sunday duo made it all the more apparent that they had come for some good family fun.

While I may have been internally grumbling at first, I have to say that it was all worth it when I was pushing H on the swing later and he yelled out between peals of laughter "I LOVE swinging!" As cliched as it is, time with your kids really does slip away too quickly. I knew that Anne and Mary Boleyn would still be waiting for me at the exact spot I'd paused when I found the time to return to them later that evening. I know I can't say the same for H.