Just another day at work

I work in new home sales, at a model home (a model home is a new home which is an example of a builder's work, it is fully furnished and people come through it to see what they can have if they decided to use my builder). I'm used to rude people, people who treat the model as their own home (it is a place of business, not a hangout house) and odd people in general. What I'm not used to is the family that visited on Saturday.

The family was composed of a set of grandparents, a mom and dad, and two boys - 4 years old and 20 months, approximately. This family allowed their children to wander the home without supervision, which meant they were pulling at decorations, banging the Foosball table, etc - but I'm used to that. They let the boys go into the fenced in backyard with no supervision - again, normal. The older little boy went up to the back fence and decided to relieve himself while he was out there. Both his mother and grandmother were watching him from inside. Grandma laughed, saying "at least he didn't pee in front of everyone in the model", mom seemed a little embarrassed, but not enough to say anything to him about it. Still, this does not shock me, as this is something little boys do, although it is not something I would personally encourage.

Dad and Grandpa leave the model to go to the next home on the street. Mom and Grandma are about 5 minutes behind them. They have the older boy with them, but not the younger one. Grandma asks where the younger one is, Mom comments that "I'm sure he went with his father". Hmm, as a parent, I would double check before leaving a building without my child.  In fact, this mother should have, since her youngest had not left and was in fact hiding in the Foosball table upstairs. I know, because I found him after they left. Yes, you heard me - they left their child behind.

So I take the boys hand and lead him over to the next model home, hoping that his parents are still there. I walk in, mention to the hostess there that I believe a have a child someone left behind at our house. She looks aghast, as if how could that be? I find the family, who are all together - well, except they are missing a 20 mth old. None of them seemed to notice he was gone. When I mentioned,  "I think you forgot someone", they laughed. They didn't appear worried or concerned.

I feel badly for this child. Our model home was full of people and anyone could have taken him. He went with me very willingly and was wanting to get into a car when I told him we were going to find his mom. He could have easily been stolen. Plus, he is much too young to be left wandering around by himself. One of those 4 adults should have had his/her eyes on him the whole time.

Happy Mother's Day

Another Mother's Day has come and gone and I must say it was one of the nicest ones I've had in awhile. The boys started Mother's Day early, since I had to work on both Saturday and Sunday. Hubby was working Sat. evening and I came home from work with the thought that I would be the one preparing dinner. Instead, I came home to my dear boy already cooking a white fish, green bean and artichoke paella. Hubby had already chopped up all the ingredients for J so that the meal would be ready before 11pm (when J has to do a lot of prep work he tends to take hours instead of minutes to get the meal completed).

Sunday morning we woke up early (7 am) to go get breakfast before I had to work. The boys gave me my bike back, completely refurbished and serviced. I'd been saying for years that I needed my bike to have a major tune-up, as it is close to 20 years old. After my Avon walk, I realized that I needed to cross train more, and that my bike would be ideal for it, however it had two flat tires and brakes that were not all that reliable. My bike is now ready to roll.
They also pulled all the weeds and resanded the patio pavers, something I would normally have to nag about for weeks to get it done; this time it was done with no nagging from me. I tell you, doing normal maintenance work around the house is truly one best gifts for me. Since I'm home more, it falls on my shoulders most days; it is nice when it gets completed by someone else.

J wanted to get me something special, so he went to Target and bought me a top for work. Hubby gave him no help, as he thought it would be good for him to learn how to shop for a woman, better now than later. Hubby was questioning J's choice, but I must say, my son has good tastes. I would not have picked out the top for myself from appearances alone, but it did look nice on.

Of course, I still had to work, hubby had to work and J had to go over a friend's house to work on a school project, so all of us were out of the house for most of the day. I was able to go to work, feeling appreciated and loved and when I came home I was still in a good mood. The boy and I went out for a nice dinner at Cheddar's, then to Baskin' Robbins for desert. We sat down and watched Monty Python's "Meaning of Life" (well, until the VCR broke - yes, we were watching it on VHS). I love spending time with my son - I know Mother's Day is a time to show appreciation for your mother, but it makes me realize how much my son means to me and what he added to my life.