I spent the latter part of last week planning to attend a local High School football game to support the coach, as well as the team and school. I was sure not to plan anything that would conflict with the time and day, marked it on the calendar and I even made the request to pick my bambino up from school early on Game day. That was a shot in the dark, but after the request was granted, I begin to solidify plans to go. I was looking forward to having a fun evening cheering from the stands, showing bambino the game of football up close. However, when it began to rain and forecasters reported tropical storms and possible down pour for several hours along with fog, thunder and lightning; it placed a damper on the evening. I thought to myself, surely this rain has to stop by this evening. It was four hours till game time.
I still made the trip to pick up my son early from school, so that we could make the 2 hour trip back to our side of town, giving consideration to the nasty weather. We were still in hot pursuit of this much anticipated football game. As we waited for the rain to cease, time drew nearer for the game and the rain showed no sign of slowing down. That is when we decided to make it a blockbuster, well Netflix movie night at the house, instead. Once we made our pick, popped some popcorn, baked some cookies, made a pizza and created a Kool-Aid disaster in the kitchen; we camped out under our tent made of several sheets and pillows balanced in over and through four chairs. We created an opening, turned the lights out and were front and center for The Polar Express. Yup, the 2004 Polar Express. A movie that will not allow itself to be deleted from our recordings because it obviously knows that every time I ask Cornelius if he wants to watch a movie he will say, “Yes, I want to watch The Polar Express”. And so, that was what it was.
Anyone with a child or in some cases, a significant other knows how plans can often change without regard to the pre-planned schedule. While I had planned all day for the game by packing food and drinks, spirit gear and doing my tweet pep rally; I had no idea it would all be for nothing 7 hours later. However, being mom I know to always have a back-up. In this case, it is the scheduled recordings that I have set for all of my Bambino’s favorite PBS, Sprout, Nickelodeon and Disney shows. When he ask to watch something, he gets it on the dime and he’s able to fast forward through commercials, rewind, pause and stop at any time; not to mention watch back to back episodes. It’s no wonder he thinks I’m superwoman.
The cutest thing was when he kept saying, “WOW, mommy we have a lot of movies on our T.V.” He insisted on making phone calls to share this information. It’s those natural wow moments as a mom that I enjoy most because they are unexpected and unplanned for. Seeing my child appreciate something as simple as recording his favorite shows and having a bullet proof backup plan to still enjoy time together, equal or greater to the time that we did not have, is what made this Friday better than any game night. One thing for sure is, we will have our time at one or more games this season from little league to high school and a few NFL games before it’s all over. But as of last Friday, MOMMY IS UNDEFEATED.
Niedria D. Kenny
The D, is for Deon - same name as my son. The only child AKA Prince Cornelius; he's the Prince in "Prince Cornelius and his Magical Friends" a book dedicated to the life and growth of my child.