Try The Red Stuff - It's Delicious

Jesse and I had a great night together. While he watched Cars, I made us both nuggets and fries, which is what he wanted for supper. He tried to talk me into letting him eat in the living room so he could still watch Cars, when I asked if his daddy would be ok with that he said, “Jesse say ok.”

I laughed, “Oh Jesse says it’s ok?” He nodded, “But would daddy say it was ok?” He just gave me this grin and giggled. “That’s what I thought!” I went back to the table and sat down and Jesse followed me.

When he managed to finally sit up on the chair - he didn’t want any help; he kept telling me he could do it when I tried to help him – he sat there staring at his plate like something was missing.

“What’s wrong Jesse?”

Pointing to his plate, he pouted. “No red.”

No red? I wasn’t sure what he meant, I looked at his plate and mine. What the heck is he talking about? “I’m not sure what you mean Jesse, what are you missing?”

“No red,” he repeated as he picked up a fry and smashed it against his plate.

It still took me a moment but when I realized what he was talking about I felt like an idiot. “Oh! You want ketchup?” I didn’t use the stuff so I didn’t even think about the fact that Jess might want it. When he smiled and nodded, I got up and grabbed the ketchup from the fridge, squeezing a little on to his plate.

Supper went smooth after that, he managed to finish all the nuggets and most of the fries I gave him. When I went to do that few dishes I dirtied he wanted to help but soon he was bored with that and asked to watch the rest of Cars.

Once Cars was over we played for a while until he was starting to get sleepy, then I got him ready for bed. Thankfully there wasn’t too much of an issue to get him into bed, he just kept asking, “Daddy kiss Jesse?” When I explained to him that his daddy was still at work and would give him kisses when he came home, Jesse sighed, “I miss daddy.”

“Oh sweetie,” I pulled him into my arms and gave him a big hug. “I know that daddy misses you too.”

Jesse finally laid back to go to sleep and I left his room. I was tired as well but I didn’t want to fall asleep, I wanted to be awake when Josh got home. After scanning the movies he had, I just decided to watch TV.

I was half asleep, half watching some show on the history channel when I heard little footsteps coming down the hall. “Ama?” Jesse peeked around the corner at me; he looked so adorable as he stood there in his Spiderman pjs holding onto Mister Bear with one hand as he rubbed his eyes with the other.

“Hey Jess,” I sat up and he came running over to me, grabbing my hand in his. “What’s wrong sweetie?”

“Ama come!” He tugged on my hand; I had no choice but to go with him unless I wanted him to hurt himself.

Half running, he lead me down the hall to his room, I thought he was going to start telling me something about monsters but he didn’t. He let go of my hand and went over to his closet. “Daddy’s bed?”

I smiled as I remember that the air mattress Josh sometimes slept on when Jess was over, was sitting in the closet. I went over and pulled it out for Jess, “You want to set it up for daddy?” He nodded, “Ok, then why don’t you go get into your bed and I’ll do that?”

Jess went over and got in bed while I laid the mattress on the floor, it was a little flat. “Oh no!” Jess cried, “Broke daddy’s bed!”

“No, sweetie it’s not broken.” I went back to the closet, poked around for a few minutes before I found the pump. Returning to the mattress, I set the pump up and started to blow the mattress back up while Jesse looked on in amazement.

Once the mattress was ready to go and the pump was back in the closet, Jess wanted me to tuck him back in. I was on my way back out to the living room when Jesse stopped me, “Ama sleep in daddy’s bed.”

“Ok,” I told him before explaining that I had to go turn off the TV and some lights.

About ten minutes later we were both tucked into bed, “Love you Ama,” Jesse called out in the semi-darkness.

“I love you too Jesse.”

I’m not sure how long it was before I woke to find Josh leaning over to check on Jesse. I watched him as he softly kissed Jess’ cheek and told him that he loved him.

“Hey handsome,” I whispered when he started to turn from Jesse to me.

“Hello beautiful,” he paused and in the light that came from the little nightlight that was just outside the door, I saw him pout a little. When I asked him what was wrong, he told me that he was hoping to carry my sleeping body into his room and place me in his bed. “But now you’ll insist on walking there yourself,” he teased. “And my romantic gesture goes flying out the window.”

I smiled, “You don’t know me very well if you think that.” I whispered. “I’ll make any excuse to have you holding me.”

“Is that so?” He chuckled, slipping my arms around his neck. I told him it was as he slid his arms under me, picking me up off the mattress.

Once I was resting in his bed, he slipped in next to me and held me tight. “Thank you so much for tonight.”

“It was my pleasure Josh. Jesse and I had fun.”

“Oh? What did you two do?” I filled him in on our night; he laughed when I told him about Jesse trying to get me to let him eat in the living room and when he wanted ketchup. When I told him about Jesse asking if Josh would give him kisses, I could feel his sadness about not being there.

“One day soon Josh, you’ll be there for all of his bedtimes.”

“I know,” Josh kissed me. “I just can’t wait for that day to come.”

It wasn’t long after that when sleep overtook the both of us.