WAW got hung up at work yesterday and texted that she was picking The Girl-Child up at day camp, but right on the cusp of the last possible minute. I texted that I'd get The Boy, since his day-camp is only a 10-minute walk from the house [but a 20-minute drive from The Girl-Child's day camp, which would have been "overtime" and would have cost a $50 fine for picking up late].
Will pick them up at yr house.
Now it's getting late in the day. The Boy, especially, is ravenous by this time of day.
So. What to do? Texted back: Y not meet for dinner at Coffee Shop? Kids like, saves me trouble cooking 4 1.
WAW's instant response: Great!
Cool Coffee Shop is about 10 minutes from The Girl-Child's day camp, so it's a convenient place to meet, and both of the kids really like it.
So we had a friendy "family" dinner. It was okay. I asked WAW an open question about her work, which apparently has been "crazy" of late, and she filled in the next 20 minutes of potential conversation time, with Myself nodding sagely and uh-huh'ing and yes'ing and "that's too bad"ing and "good for you"ing and the like.
The kids seemed happy to have us both present "without any arguing yay!" (Now that's a kid exaggeration -- WAW and I have only argued 2 or 3 times, ever, in front of them, and those were during the in-house separation, but recent events always loom largest in our minds, kids especially.)
We parted company in the parking lot (kids are at mom's house this weekend). It was what it was, or so I thought. Just a friendy meeting of co-parents. Don't overthink it.
Today. E-WAWmail: I enjoyed having dinner with all of us last night. I don't know how you feel, but I hope that we can do that every now and again. There were times during dinner when I kind of forgot we were separated and that made me both happy and sad. It made me happy when we were all eating and it seemed "normal" and then sad when I remembered it's not.
To which I replied, "I know what you mean. I enjoyed it too."
