Five Years and Counting

Back at the end of July, Matt and I celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary. The five years have gone quickly in some ways and slowly in others. I have been blessed with a pretty wonderful partner to share home ownership, dog ownership, parenthood, and my life with. Matt is fiercely loyal and the best gift he has given me is the knowledge that he loves me. I was lucky to find one of the good ones.

This year Matt had a special anniversary gift for me and he gave it to me a week early; here's why:

On July 20, one week before our anniversary, my friend, Erin, had a baby. She even called me that morning to tell me about it and while I was on the phone with her, Harper went into the spare bedroom and did this:


You are looking at my iPod, and the ear buds for my iPod, which Harper had cut into three pieces. I remember things getting quiet when I was (so briefly!) on the phone with Erin and finding Harper in the spare bedroom, which she isn't normally allowed in by herself. I removed her from the room, not noticing the iPod until later. When I did notice it, let's just say I was a little upset. I know Harper doesn't understand the concept that I had to now go out and spend money to replace the ear buds, but that didn't stop me from being furious.

Later that same afternoon, Harper was in her room, "napping." It had been very quiet and I was under the impression that she had fallen asleep. But no, she wasn't sleeping. When I opened the door to check on her, I found she had been busy with a container of Vaseline. She had been "painting" with it, all over her windows, floor, curtains, shirt, and the back of her rocking chair. The container, which had been nearly full, was empty when I found what she was doing. The Vaseline was so thick on the windows that I had to use a squeegee to clean it off before I could even attempt to apply glass cleaner. The cushion on the rocking chair is, of course, dry clean only, and it cost us over $50 to get the Vaseline out of it.

Fortunately Matt was home that afternoon because, after the morning with the iPod, I did not handle the Vaseline incident all that well.

Sigh.

I understand that Harper is not going to be well behaved all the time, but I did not sign up for property destruction. And, yes, I should have closed the door to the spare bedroom. And, yes, I should have made sure the Vaseline was somewhere Harper couldn't reach it. Hindsight is 20-20.

So there I was, having a lousy afternoon, and Matt walks out to the living room and says, "I was saving this for next week, but I think you need it today." He handed me a stack of papers including:

-airplane tickets
-a condo reservation
and
-two passes to DisneyWorld!*

In addition to making all the travel arrangements Matt arranged for our parents to watch Harper for the week (yes, an entire week, seven days, together!!!) and contacted my professor to make sure he scheduled the trip around my fall class.

See?

Loves me.

We are going to be there from September 8, (Yes, we leave next Saturday!) to September 15. I only feel a little guilty about going to DisneyWorld without Harper. Then I think about what it would be like to take a two-year-old to DisneyWorld, or on an airplane, and I don't feel badly anymore.


(*I love DisneyWorld and Matt has never been there. We were supposed to go on a trip there the fall before Harper was born, but our hotel was leveled by a hurricane and we had to cancel the trip. I have always wanted to go there with Matt once without taking children along; that way he can experience the magic without schlepping a stroller, waiting in line with whining kiddos, and finding every bathroom in the Magic Kingdom.)