Father's Day Part 2

My husband knows I love movies.  He likes movies, but rarely is driven to see a movie in the theater.  In the last 23 years we've been together, it is a rare movie that he wants to see on opening weekend.  Yesterday he was smoking some meat in his new grill.  I mentioned that I might go see "Rock Of Ages". 

"I want to see that.  We can go tomorrow."  He said.

But we have a potluck every month or so with his family and it was on Sunday.

"Potluck's at noon.  We can catch an afternoon show."  He even looked up the showtimes and settled on a theater. 

But potluck is a lot of fun and we get talking and telling stories and next thing you know it is three-thirty.  By the time we are heading home it is too late for the movie and the US Open is on television.  Everyone knows that the best naps are to golf. 

So, we didn't go to the movie. 

He's always had good intentions when it comes to seeing a movie.  That is why typically I end up going alone.  There are a few stars he will get out of the house for.  Will Ferrell, Adam Sandler and Ben Stiller are perennial favorites. 

But some 23 years ago, he promised to take me to a movie.

He'd been promising for a couple of weeks and things kept coming up.  I was about fourteen months pregnant and determined to see one more movie before I had the baby.  Finally I had pushed him so much he committed.

"You have a doctor's appointment at ten tomorrow morning.  I don't have to work the fourth of July, we'll go after the doctor.  I'll even buy you lunch."

I was a little emotional during this period. 

"OK."  I remember saying.  I may have been crying and whining about being fourteen months pregnant with a potentially fifteen pound baby, but I recall being calm.

"Ghostbusters Two" had come out and I'd loved the first one.  Then it happened.  Of course it happened.

At 3 AM, not long after he'd gone to work, I woke up in labor.   I wasn't giving in though.   I had experienced a number of false alarms, more than three but less than twenty.  I wasn't going anywhere until the doctor told me for sure. 

You guessed it.  The doctor sent me right to the hospital.  I was still whining about not seeing the movie.  But he was patient and kind.  He sat by my side and waited for that baby. 

The kid took his time.  From waking me at 3 AM on July 3rd to finally arriving at 4:04 AM on July 4th, it was 26 hours of labor including two hours of pushing.  And he was only nine pounds. 

And this man, who I'd never seen hold a baby took his son and fell in love.  He's been a good father ever since.