When Kids Make the Plans aka How Awesome is My Husband?

The girls spent yesterday a Gram’s house because Jaxon was going to be there. When he’s there, they’re there because, as my mom says, it’s actually easier to take care of three than it is one because when there are three, they entertain each other but when there’s just one, that one expects the adult to entertain them because…boredom.

The moment I stepped into my mom’s house, Jaxon was beside me. “Tommie! Hey, Tommie, guess what? I’m going to ask my dad if I can come to your house tonight after my baseball game and spend the night with the girls.”

I laughed because I thought he was joking.

Alyssa said, “It would only be one more mouth to feed.”

I tried to follow this train of thought but it was not computing. My mom finally clued me in.

“They’re planning for Jaxon to come to your house tonight after his game, spend the night with you guys and then spend the day at your house with the girls.”

Jaxon reiterated, “Yeah, I could just come over after my game and spend the night with the girls then I would be with them tomorrow when we all wake up.”

“Hold on, Buddy,” I told him. “I can’t make that decision. I have to ask Tom since he’s the one who would be taking care of all you guys tomorrow.”

“Okay,” he said, very agreeable and all, “you should call Tom and see if it’s okay. Do you think it’ll be okay because I’m going to ask my dad when I get to my game and then Gram can bring me to your house and I can spend the night. Why does Tom have to stay with me and the girls? Does he have to go to work? Can I come over after my game?”

I walked away from the chatterbox and called my husband.

His first reaction was the same as mine. He laughed because like me, he thought it was a joke.

See, Jaxon’s mom and dad aren’t married. He lives mostly with his dad (my brother) but during the school year the custody agreement is pretty equal. The problem is summer. His mom is a stay-at-home mom to her two younger daughters. Her husband works second shift and they only have one car. So…if he’s at her house during the week, my brother had to go get Jaxon for his baseball games, take him back to her after the games, blah, blah, blah. It’s easier for my brother for Jaxon to either stay at my mom’s because my mom will take him to the games/practice or for Jax to go to my brother’s sister-in-law’s house, which is where Jaxon’s younger brother goes every day.

The problem is that Jaxon says that the sister-in-law’s kids (four of them) are mean to him. My mom and I are pretty protective of this kid. He’s been through a lot in his seven years of life. I know, kids will be kids. But kids will also be little shits and I think this is the case. And I also think that the sister-in-law sort of lets the kids run wild and isn’t really aware of how obnoxious her kids are.

So yeah, sorry, major tangent.

Tom and I talked a little more and then he said, “What do you think? I mean, it’s just one more kid.”

I told him what Lyss had said about it just being one more mouth to feed. Then I said, “This will not be a weekly thing, I promise.”

He laughed at that because, yeah, duh.

Then he said, “Sure, he can come over.”

So I hung up the phone and announced, “Okay, Jax, you can come over after your game.”

There was much whooping and screeching. Everyone was quite excited.

Once at home, I was asked no fewer than a dozen times what time I thought Jaxon would get there. And let me say right now that Liv wasn’t the only one asking.

His practice started at 6pm. His game started at 7. The games run either five innings or an hour and a half, whichever happens first.

When he wasn’t there at 9:20, Tom asked, “You don’t think they’d show up this late do you?”

I explained the timing and then said, “Do you really think my brother would say no to this?”

Tom laughed and agreed that it was highly unlikely that Big J had said no to little J.

My mom and Jax arrived at 9:35. He was very excited and very wound up.

Olivia was already sound asleep because, well, she’s an early to bed/early to rise kind of girl.

I finally wrangled both Jax and Lyss into bed at 10:10.

When I left for work at 7:25 this morning, Tom had all three kids outside on the porch to say good bye.

And all this is to say that I think my husband might just be one of the best dads/uncles around. It’s all kinds of awesome that he said, “Well, it’s just one more kid, right?”