06/21/2007

Some of you may recall hearing that a week or two ago we attended an Astro's baseball game as a family. I won't rehash the entire experience because it isn't all relevant to this post anyways. But, one part of the evening has been on my mind and I felt it deserved documentation. Mid-way through the ballgame, we all headed out to the concession stand. Nick was holding Nathan and they were playing a familiar game while they waited in line. The game goes like this:

Nick pretends to fall asleep. Nathan **magically** wakes him up with a kiss on the lips. Then Nathan pushes Daddy's head to the side to indicate that Daddy should probably fall asleep again. On and on this goes.

I was standing next to them and primarily people-watching when all the sudden I felt a tug on my hair. Ouch! I looked at Nathan to figure out what he wanted. Do you know what he had in mind? Daddy was 'asleep' and Nathan wanted me to kiss him! I obliged, thinking that this was a one-time occurrence, and woke Daddy up with a kiss. Nathan cheered! Nathan clapped! Nathan demanded Daddy go back to sleep so that Mommy could kiss him again! I bet we carried on this way for three or four minutes. We drew quite a crowd as onlookers observed this little game with 'awws' and 'how cute' comments. I didn't think a whole lot of it at the time. It was maybe a bit inconvenient and I was tired of standing in line and I was tired of standing on tip-toe to kiss Nick time and time again. If anything, I was relieved when we made our purchase and Nathan's attention was directed toward eating. But, over the past few days I've replayed the scene and it has gained significance.

Some years ago, when I was still living with my Dad and Mom, we attended a little concert down near my Grandma's house. It was just a family who all happen to be tuneful...it wasn't a big star or anything. They had a daughter who was probably in her early teens, and she sang a song that has stuck with me. Actually, only two lines of the song stuck with me, but I remember them clearly. They were the first two lines of the chorus. She said: "I want Mommy with Daddy, I want Mommy and Daddy together."

My mind and heart have been busy film-editing recently. The film shows little Nathan instigating kisses between his Mommy and his Daddy at the ballpark, and in the background is his sweet voice singing, "I want Mommy with Daddy, I want Mommy and Daddy together." Nineteen months old, and already Nathan is finding ways to show his parents that he loves it when they are together. A lot of voices will tell you that marriage is too hard, that marriage isn't worth it, and that the time has come to 'go your separate ways'. And marriage is hard. And it is a struggle. And I suppose some days one or both of the involved parties would rather throw in the towel, but it is on those kind of days that I press the 'play' button and review my little home-movie.

"I want Mommy with Daddy, I want Mommy and Daddy together."