(For other posts in this series, click here and here.)
This happened a few weeks ago, but it keeps sitting in my mind. So, I’m going to blog about it.
I was out alone with Kyle and Owen on a gorgeous Saturday morning. We were doing some errands and we were having a great time. We stopped at our favorite gardening center, Bucks Country Gardens. It is a beautiful, fun place to visit with the boys. They love looking at all the flowers, the fountains, the pond, etc. And the plants there are spectacular. We were there for quite awhile. The place was relatively empty and we had fun roaming around feeling like we virtually had the grounds to ourselves. We took our time picking out two big potted plants — one for Kyle and one for Owen. The plants were identical, of course (because if it were up to K & O they would still have everything –down to the socks on their feet– be identical… but that is a whole other story). Anyway, we had gone to the register, I had paid for the plants, and we were walking through the place to leave. Kyle was right ahead of me, carrying his plant. Owen was right behind me, carrying his plant. We had almost made it to the parking lot when I hear, behind me, a man’s voice, kind of loudly, saying/shouting, “Hey, little boy! Little boy!” I turned around and saw that Owen, who obviously heard it too, had stopped just a few feet behind me to turn around to see what was going on. A young man who was clearly an employee there (he was dressed in the Bucks Country Gardens employee t-shirt), was running out of his office, toward Owen, still shouting to him, “Little boy! Wait! Little boy!” I was standing there as I watched my Owen, sweet little boy that he is, standing there doing his best to be careful with his big potted plant, with his back to me, waiting to see what this man wanted. As the guy approached he glanced at me, we made eye contact for a second, and then, to Owen he said, “Are you lost?” Owen, surely confused, didn’t respond. The man repeated it, “Are you lost?” I heard Owen say, “No.” The man said, pointedly, “Well, then, are you o.k.?” Owen said, “Yes.” And then the man said, “Well, where is your mommy???” Owen turned slightly to nod toward me and said, “She’s right there.” I quickly put my hand on Owen’s shoulder, and, for lack of anything better to say at the moment, simply said, “I am his mommy” to the guy, and then led Owen and Kyle to the car to go home.