Single-Parenthood

Jen and I had great plans to go out and celebrate her birthday on Saturday night at Seasons 52 and to go see a movie "Dan in real life" (I think that is the right name). Did you notice the verb?

HAD.

The weekend plans had a huge momentum shift on Friday night. We had all survived Morgan being sick last week, but it was now Jen's turn. She was up most of the night not feeling good - I'll spare you the details, if not only to protect my self from Jen! (I love you!)

So, instead of going to dinner and a movie, I canceled the dinner reservations and called Christy to tell her that we were in fact not needing to use her babysitting duties (although we did request and get a rain check for sometime soon). Morgan and I spent most of the morning out of the house so Jen could stay home in bed.

There were a number of errands that required getting in and out of the car for a couple hours that morning, so I did what any father would have don. I bribed Morgan.

Morgan was AWESOME!

• We went to the Dollar Tree/Store (somewhere) and picked up some small gifts for the young boy we are sponsoring for Christmas. She was by my side pretty much the entire time in the store and only put a couple things in the basket when I wasn't looking (I caught them all at the checkout lane). Reward - some fruit chews (a.k.a., "ponies").
• We then went to my dad's house to drop off the crock pot we borrowed to make chili for the Alpha Course at church (and for a family meal), along with the two Atlanta Falcon football tickets that Jen and I wouldn't be able to use. Reward - nothing (we were there less than 2 minutes).
• We then went to the Mall of Georgia (which was not at all busy at 10 AM - thankfully). I told Morgan before we got to the mall that we were not going to be able to ride the carousel ("horseys") because "Daddy didn't have any money". To which she told me that "Mimi and Mommy have money and can ride the horseys with Morgan, right?" I was very clear that "OF COURSE! Mimi and Mommy would LOVE to take you to ride the horseys!" So, in advance - Thanks Mimi and Mommy! Reward - frozen Minute Maid drink and a chocolate chip cookie.

The rest of the day was a bit of a blur since Morgan did not take a nap at all (maybe the cookie and frozen drink were not such a great idea). Jen was feeling a little better that evening, so we put Morgan to bed early (like 6:30 PM - I'm really glad she can't tell time yet!) and hung out on the couch the rest of the evening catching up on the tv shows we have on the DVR.

Sunday was fun - Morgan and I went to church (Jen was still feeling yucky), came home and Morgan took a nap (if she would have fought this I was prepared to put her in the car and drive around Atlanta for 2-3 hours to make sure she slept - much like her father, Morgan can't be in a car for more than 20 minutes without falling asleep).